Black Sun Rising
by jazzpha
Summary: Slight AU. After the Batarians raid Mindoir, a mercenary crew headed by Zaeed Massani shows up looking for their target. They wind up finding someone else they weren't expecting at all: a young man with the potential to help Zaeed and his crew become the most powerful band of mercenaries in the galaxy. If all their enemies don't kill them first, that is. Rated high T, for Zaeed.
1. The Son of Mindoir

**Black Sun Rising**

**Chapter 1: The Son of Mindoir**

* * *

"Jesus Christ."

Zaeed Massani took a moment to shift his eye away from the carnage and over to his fellow human mercenary, chuckling bitterly.

"He ain't around, kid," he said. "And even if he was, what makes you think he'd listen t' you, after he ignored all these poor bastards?"

"This is barbarism," an Asari Commando said through her helmet, disgust clear in her voice all the same. "If it were up to me, Khar'shan would be a smoking ruin."

"Relax, Aleena," a heavily-armored Krogan said from her left. "They'll get what's coming to 'em. Humans don't take wholesale slaughter of their kind very well."

"You got that right, Wrex," Zaeed replied, his good eye grim with barely-repressed anger. "All right, let's get moving. We still have a job to do, and even if the son of a bitch is dead, we still need to bring back proof. And keep an eye out for any Batarians. You see them, you fucking kill them."

"Roger that, Sir," the other human mercenary said, loading a fresh clip into his pistol.

The four mercenaries advanced into the nearest building with practiced caution, backs to each other, each taking point watching one of the cardinal directions. This had used to be Mindoir's most popular cantina, but the patrons were now little more than corpses slumped up against walls, sitting in pools of their own blood.

The ones who had been lucky enough not to be taken by the Batarians, at least.

The mercenaries came to a wide door and fanned back out, with the two humans taking cover on either side of the door while Aleena and Wrex took point. The Krogan was about to open the door when his friend heard something barely filter through the metal, and held up a closed fist.

"What is it?"

"Sounds like we aren't the only ones here," Aleena answered. "Be ready."

"I always am," Wrex said, before pressing his hand against the glowing green panel. The door slid open with a _hiss_, and the four mercenaries quickly saw that Aleena was right.

The main floor of the dive was mostly empty—the only corpses on the ground were Batarians, and it didn't take the mercenaries long to figure out who'd put them there.

"What the hell are you waiting for!?" one of the six remaining Batarians shouted to his comrades, his eyes split between rage and fear. "Kill this little shitstain already!"

The six slavers were standing in a half-circle in front of a single human holding a pistol, a young man. His back was bare and faced the mercenaries, showcasing a display of fresh and scarring wounds that was as impressive as it was horrifying. Blood dripped slowly down the human's back, highlighting the black marking of a Batarian slaver's brand on his left trapezius muscle.

"So far I'm averaging twenty of you bastards a day," the human said, his voice completely calm and all the scarier for it. "If you want to help me get to my daily quota, then stop wasting my time and let's do this."

Wrex noticed that the Batarians' grips on their guns were shaking, and knew the fight was already over. He glanced to Zaeed, who seemed perfectly content to watch this kid do their work for them.

The Batarians opened fire a moment later, but the human had already dove to the floor and raised his pistol, getting off two quick shots and burning holes between the eyes of two Batarians. One of the remaining four charged the human, screaming in rage and raising his rifle up high, ready to slam the butt down on the human's skull.

The young man pushed himself up on his arms just high enough to get the space he needed to swing his legs around, cutting the Batarian's legs out from under him even as the other slavers were yelling at their companion for blocking their shots. The human grabbed the Batarian as soon as he hit the ground, holding him up and using his body as a fleshy shield to take the next round of rifle shots for him while he got back to his feet.

The human tossed the now-limp Batarian to the floor, and the surviving slavers raised their rifles to take the clear shot—

Only to hear nothing more than a clicking sound from their weapons upon pulling the triggers.

They'd barely had enough time to register how screwed they were before the human was on them, punching one of the Batarians in the chest before grabbing her head as it lurched forward and snapping her neck. He yanked the Batarian's pistol out of its holster and leveled one gun at each of the remaining slavers, pulling the triggers simultaneously and dropping the aliens to the floor.

The human holstered his new gun and ejected a spent heat sink from the old one, squatting to the floor for a moment before reaching into the pocket of his pants and pulling out a beat-up pack of cigarettes. He took one out and held it up to the still-glowing shell casing, lighting the tip before rising to his feet and taking a drag.

"Welcome to Mindoir," he said a moment later, as the four mercenaries made their way into the room. "What're you doing here?"

"Looking for someone," Zaeed answered, holstering his rifle on his back. "On a job."

The young man turned around at last, revealing a head of short dark hair, keen blue eyes, and a face that was scarred down the right side and gaunt with hunger.

"You mercs?"

Aleena nodded, the panels of her helmet sliding away.

"When did the Batarians get here?"

"About two weeks ago," the young man said, walking toward the mercenaries as he took another drag. "Cut off all communications as soon as they landed. By the time we got the towers back up and running, the Batarians had put up defenses too strong for the local Alliance patrols to bust through."

"You held your own for two weeks against these bastards?" Zaeed replied, sounding begrudgingly impressed. "Not bad at all, kid. You got a name?"

"Shepard," the young man answered, before dropping the butt of the cigarette to the floor and grinding it down with his boot. "You must be Zaeed Massani. Who's the unlucky target this time?"

"Koral Fortram," Zaeed said. "Heard he was running this place, and someone wanted him dead bad enough to hire the four of us. Must've figured something serious had happened for the whole colony to go dark."

"Fortram's back in his office, through there," Shepard said, gesturing down a hallway behind him. "But he's probably starting to stink, just so you know."

He walked over to the bar and pulled out a bottle of whiskey from behind the counter, pouring himself a shot. Shepard drained it and put the glass back down on the counter, before tilting his head to the side thoughtfully.

"Did you leave anyone to guard your ship?"

"A small crew," the other human mercenary said. "Why?"

Suddenly, the dull, rumbling sound of an explosion reached the mercenaries' ears, and it didn't take long for Zaeed to piece together that the exploding object had likely been their ship.

"That's why," Shepard said, pouring himself another shot. "Should've left the Krogan behind."

"Goddamnit," Zaeed growled, starting to think of a contingency plan while Shepard busied himself with stripping one of the fresh Batarian corpses. After treating the fresh wounds on his back with medi-gel to dull the pain, Shepard put on the Batarian's armor and picked up the M-15 Vindicator, making sure it was loaded with a fresh clip before slinging it over his back.

"If you need another way out of here," Shepard said, "I know where the slavers keep their ships docked. I can help you out, on two conditions."

"Which would be?" Aleena asked, closing her helmet up again in preparation for their departure.

"You give me transportation off-planet, and a share of the payout."

"First thing's fine with me," Zaeed said, "but you gotta earn the second, Shepard."

Shepard smiled, life coming into his eyes for the first time.

"Works for me."

"Okay. Murphy," Zaeed continued, "you go in back and get proof Fortram's dead. Can't afford to lug his body around with us, but I'm fucked if I'm going to let some Batarian scum steal our payday."

"Got it, Sir," the other human mercenary said promptly, before hurrying off down the hallway. Once Murphy was out of earshot, Zaeed sighed.

"I really wish he'd stop with the 'Sir' crap," the older mercenary grumbled. "This ain't the Alliance." He looked at Shepard, curious.

"Who taught you to fight, kid?"

"My father," Shepard said. "Allan Karrick."

"That stubborn bastard is your father?" Zaeed said, his voice rising in surprise. "No shit. I served with him, back when I still wore the uniform."

"I know," Shepard replied, "I heard the stories." A faint smile crossed his face at the memories, but it vanished a heartbeat later.

The shift wasn't lost on Zaeed, and his expression softened ever so slightly.

"He's gone," the older mercenary said, "ain't he?"

Shepard said nothing, only nodding.

"Him, and everyone else. Nothing left for me here, anymore." He glanced over at the other dead Batarians, his head lowering slightly. "Nothing left for anyone."

"Then let's kill some Batarians and get the hell out of here," Wrex spoke up, breaking his silence. The Krogan's voice seemed to jolt Shepard back into the present, and he rolled his shoulders to stretch into his new armor.

"Sounds good to me," Shepard said, his eyes shifting back to steely as his mouth set itself into a determined line. Drawing one of the pistols from its holster, he readied it with an incendiary ammo mod and put his helmet on just as Murphy walked out of the back room.

"Got his head," the mercenary said, "and put it in my pack. Should be good enough, without needing the rest of the body."

"Good work," Zaeed said tersely, before turning his attention back to Shepard. "So, where to?"

"From what I can tell, the Batarians have turned the main weapons factory into a hangar," Shepard answered. "To keep people who might go right to the main port from stumbling on their ships. The factory's about a kilometer west of here, but they have snipers posted on the roof at every main entry point. Did you guys bring any vehicles with you?"

"Do we fucking look like we did?" Zaeed shot back, his anger at the loss of their ship boiling over. "If we had, our ship wouldn't have fuckin' gotten blown to bits, now would it?"

"Just thought I'd ask," Shepard said, sounding unfazed by the outburst. "Guess that means we're waiting until nightfall, then."

"No way," Murphy broke in. "I'm a sniper, Zaeed's a great shot, and Aleena ain't too bad neither. Get us in position, and we can clear the roof."

"Thanks for leaving me out of the party, you asshole," Wrex grumbled. "For the record, I'm a better shot than you."

"How about you two spend less time measuring your dicks, and more time moving your goddamn asses?" Zaeed broke in forcefully, his good eye narrowed in anger. "If we aren't in space by the time the sun sets on this fucking colony, I'm going to be very, very angry."

"You heard the man," Aleena called out. "Let's move!"

The five of them left the ruined cantina, beginning the trek through the hollow shell that had once been Mindoir towards the converted factory.

* * *

The final approach towards the factory involved skirting around a cliff-face, the group slowly making their way down the red, rocky slope until the gates of the building were in sight. The mercenaries all synced up their communicators, and were about to split off to find sniping perches when Shepard unexpectedly broke rank and ran down the slope.

"Shit," Murphy cursed as Aleena followed Shepard, while Zaeed and Wrex hung back to avoid increasing the chances of totally blowing their cover.

"Shepard," Aleena hissed, "what do you think you're doing!?"

But Shepard wasn't listening to the Asari. He'd stopped running, and Aleena could now see that he'd knelt down on the ground next to a prone male human. The prone one was badly wounded, and his lifeblood was seeping into the dry soil.

"Hey, Eddy," Shepard said quietly, but insistently. "Hey. Stay with me, buddy."

"J—John?" Eddy struggled to say, barely believing his eyes. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"About to get a ride off this planet," Shepard answered. "Hang in there, and you can come with us."

"No… no, can't," Eddy gasped. "Hurts. Hurts… too much. Wires… the wires are pain, John. And the nightm—" Eddy hacked violently, blood on his lips now. "The nightmares d—don't stop. I just… want to go home."

Shepard hung his head, slowly drawing a knife from a holster at his waist. Aleena didn't need to see his face to know that the human was crying.

"Relax," Shepard said, his voice breaking. "It'll be fine. Just think of home, Eddy. Think of it like it was. Can you see it?"

Eddy closed his eyes and sighed, the ghost of a smile on his face.

Shepard slipped the knife around the back of his friend's head and cut the wires, a moment before Eddy breathed his last.

Aleena didn't make a sound as Shepard slipped the knife back into its sheath, his hand clenching into a tight fist.

"Let's do this," he grit out, before rising back to his feet and walking back towards the other mercenaries. Aleena followed in Shepard's wake, sparing a short glance back at Eddy's corpse along the way.

Zaeed regarded Shepard coolly, his eye searching.

"You done?"

"Yeah."

The two humans stared each other down for a few tense heartbeats, before Zaeed nodded.

"Good. Wrex, what kind of guard detail is your scanner picking up?"

"Weird," the Krogan answered after studying the instrument. "Doesn't look like they have anyone posted on the roof after all. Just some guards at the front gate, and a few smaller detachments watching the side gates. Must have most of their strength inside the building."

"Which means less open ground and more cover," Zaeed observed as he readied his assault rifle. "Might give us an advantage after all. We just need to get inside."

"Hey, Murphy," Shepard said, "let me see your sniper rifle for a second."

"What?" the other human breathed out, surprised. "No! You don't get to ask for shit from me, kid."

"I wasn't asking you," Shepard replied, the coldness in his voice making Murphy falter. "Give me the rifle."

The weapon was in Shepard's hands a few seconds later, and he looked down the scope.

"How many, Wrex?"

"Three at each of the side gates, five up front," the Krogan answered.

Shepard exhaled a long, slow breath and pulled the trigger. Once, twice, a third and then a fourth time, all in the span of twelve seconds, each shot echoing with a _crack_ as another Batarian fell. Only one guard was left at the front gate, and he promptly raised the alarm to his friends over at the side gates. Shepard took advantage of the lull and loaded a fresh clip into the weapon, while Murphy took the opportunity to frown.

"You missed one, jackass."

"Someone shut him up," Shepard said quietly, but there was no mistaking the tension in his voice. "This is the tricky part."

As soon as the guard details from the other gates were called over by the lone Batarian to investigate the aftermath of the attack, Shepard knew he only had a few more seconds before one of the guards was smart enough to trace the direction of the shots back to where he was. Breathing out again, Shepard let off a fluid, precise volley of seven shots. Each one dropped a Batarian, and a few moments later the front gate of the factory began to slide open with a loud, shrieking groan.

"Looks like we have ourselves a way in," Zaeed said, now sounding genuinely impressed. "Wrex, you take the west side gate. Aleena, you and Murphy go east. Shepard, you and me are taking the front door."

The group splintered up, moving into an elaborate pincer formation.

"_Ready,"_ Wrex's voice spoke up over the comms.

"_Ready,"_ Aleena's joined in a moment later.

Zaeed primed an Inferno Grenade, chucked it into the factory, and the rest was chaos.

The five mercenaries pushed into the building, blasting away anything with more than two eyes. Wrex crushed two Batarians at once just by charging into them, before lifting up another pair with his biotics and slamming them into a fuel tank so hard that the thing combusted. Only then did he bother drawing his shotgun, eviscerating another Batarian that had been stupid enough to close ranks on a Krogan.

Aleena moved with the famed predatory grace of the Asari Commandos, leaving Murphy in the dust as she weaved around the Batarian troops. Before the slavers even realized what they were up against, Aleena had snapped five necks, crushed three Batarians in a singularity and had shot holes dead in the hearts of two more. One Batarian charged up behind the Asari, only to be met with a snap kick from Aleena's heel that knocked him out cold.

Murphy buried two shots in the downed Batarian's chest and moved on, aiming his pistol at two more slavers as they closed in on him. Four shots later they were both down, but not before one of them had buried a shot of their own in Murphy's right shoulder. The human sniffed at the wound gingerly, smelling the signature acrid scent of polonium-laced rounds and cursing under his breath.

Zaeed and Shepard charged forward and slid up against cover, using the smoke from Zaeed's grenade to cover their advance. The older mercenary stuck his head up above cover just long enough to draw beads on his targets, before ducking back down and letting them waste their clips. As soon as the Batarian volley was spent, Zaeed responded with his own round of assault rifle bursts. The Batarians fell with strangled groans, not a shot wasted.

Shepard wasted no time in vaulting over the cover and drawing his pistol, quickly scanning the surroundings for any more Batarians. The slavers' numbers had thinned considerably, but they weren't done yet. Two of the Batarians were smart enough to try and flank Shepard as he settled in behind a new piece of cover, and one of them got a shot off that grazed Shepard's arm before being rewarded with three new holes in their chest. The second flanker was a better shot, burying a round in Shepard's other arm that actually hit it squarely. Shepard grunted in pain, but pushed past it long enough to tackle the Batarian to the ground. Two hard punches later, the alien's head had been wrenched hard enough that it was no longer breathing.

All told, the assault was done in five minutes. The mercenaries regrouped and advanced on the closest Batarian ship, all-too-eager to get off of the planet before a wave of Batarian reinforcements arrived to strengthen their hold on the colony.

Just as Shepard was about to board the ship, though, a sound pulled his attention back to the now-ruined factory.

"Help!"

The shout was accompanied by the much louder noise of a gas tank exploding not too far away, and the roof of the factory began to groan.

"Shepard, get in here!" Wrex shouted. "This place is about to come down on top of us!"

Shepard turned around instead, and could just barely make out the silhouette of what looked like a child in a cage. Raising one arm to his face in an attempt to keep the smoke and chemicals in the air away from his lungs, Shepard ran back down the ramp and towards the cage.

Looking in, he could barely make out the image of a young girl, who didn't seem to be much older than six.

"Help!" the girl shouted again. "Please, help! The aliens took mommy and daddy! They… they…"

Shepard didn't wait to hear anything else, slamming his shoulder against the cage door again and again, until it bent and opened with a groan.

"Come on!" he shouted, and the girl ran to him. Shepard scooped her up and carried her with him as he ran back towards the Batarian ship, barely making it onto the ramp before it began to retract into the ship.

Shepard hurried into a seat and strapped in just as Murphy punched the ship's engines, holding the rescued girl against him as she whimpered in fear.

"It's okay," he said, hoping she could hear him over the roar of the engines. "It's okay. I got you."

The girl shuddered once and relaxed with a sigh, her exhaustion finally overtaking her. Shepard closed his eyes as well, falling into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

"Hold still, or this is really going to hurt."

Shepard didn't move a muscle as Aleena's fingers pulsed slightly with biotic energy, drawing the bullet out from the wound in his arm. As soon as it was clear, the Asari shifted her attention to staunching the flow of blood. Reaching for a roll of bandages, Aleena smiled at Shepard.

"It was a good thing, what you did for that girl," she said. "I don't know any mercs who'd have made that call, John."

"I'm not a merc," Shepard replied, trying not to sound as pained as he felt. "I wasn't gonna just leave her there. She'd lost her parents, same as me. And if I hadn't done anything, she'd be dead, too."

"Like I said," Aleena continued gently, putting pressure on Shepard's bandages and moving closer to him, "it was a good thing. And about you not being a merc, well… I was talking to Zaeed earlier while you were still passed out, and he had something of an idea. Want to hear what it was?"

"Sure," Shepard said, trying not to be too distracted by the sight of an Asari Commando so close to him.

It wasn't easy at all.

"Zaeed wants to make our crew a little more permanent," Aleena explained, "and he wants to give you a spot. Said he hadn't seen a sniper as good as you in a long time, and I agree with that."

"Permanent?" Shepard echoed, suspicious. "Permanent how?"

"I don't know if you're aware of this," Aleena explained, "but Zaeed co-founded the Blue Suns mercenary group after he ditched the Alliance. The killing was in his blood by then, I guess. But then his partner betrayed him and left him for dead, so Zaeed was flying solo for a while after that. But the four of us, we've run enough jobs together by now that it's starting to feel like an actual team.

"A team Zaeed wants you on."

"A team he's going to turn into a new Blue Suns?"

Aleena shrugged.

"Maybe," she said, "maybe not. Depends. But it is true that the more of us there are, the bigger and better jobs we can pull off. Which means more money, and all the things that money can buy."

Shepard sighed, looking down at the cot he was sitting on.

"I don't care about the money," he said. "I'm using my share to make sure the girl winds up somewhere that can take care of her."

"Yeah, you're definitely winning the award for 'Most Confusing Human I've Ever Met'," Aleena said, chuckling. "Why don't you care about the money?"

"Because it can't bring back what I've lost," Shepard said, melancholy bleeding into his voice as he lifted his face to look into Aleena's deep blue eyes. "Nothing can."

The Asari smiled, taking Shepard's face in her hands.

"You lose your family," she said, "you have to make a new one. You aren't the first person something like this has happened to, kid."

Aleena leaned forward and kissed Shepard lightly on the forehead, before dropping her hands and rising to her feet.

"Get some rest," the Asari said as she walked back towards the main cabin. "I'll wake you up when we reach the Citadel, and you can make your decision there. But don't worry," she cut Shepard off before he could even object, "I'll make sure Talitha—that's the girl's name—gets dropped off somewhere safe while we're picking up the credits.

"Sweet dreams, John."

Shepard let himself fall back onto the cot and closed his eyes, hoping for another dreamless sleep.

And once again, he was lucky. It was a small comfort in the wake of everything that had happened, but at this point Shepard knew he'd be spending the rest of his life taking whatever scraps of happiness he could find.

* * *

…

…

**A/N:** Mass Effect's story is awesome, but it's the characters that really make it all work. So my apologies if this chapter was a bit light on the action, but the characters are just way too much fun to write. I hope I did them justice, and I hope you enjoyed it! The next chapter will have more of Zaeed being awesome in it, along with more Wrex goodness. I wanted to give them both more lines, but they were too busy kicking ass. Also, I liked Wrex's story in ME1 about Aleena so much, I felt like I owed it to her to give her some time to shine.

Shepard is 16 years old here, and he's 29 when Mass Effect canonically starts. So I'm shifting things around a bit in terms of when these characters all start crossing paths, timeline-wise.

Thanks for reading, and please let me know what you thought!

Still to come: The payoff for this contract, Cerberus, and a few more familiar faces. Should be fun.

See you next time,

**JP**


	2. The Citadel

**Black Sun Rising**

**Chapter 2: The Citadel**

* * *

"Hey, rookie. Wake up. We're almost at the Citadel."

Shepard forced himself awake, blinking his bleary eyes at Murphy as he sat up in the cot.

"Hey, Murphy."

"Yeah?"

"Sorry for calling you out like that yesterday."

Murphy shrugged.

"You got the job done. That's all that matters. Didn't your old man ever tell you that?"

"Yeah," Shepard said, feeling a bit better. "Just felt like something I should say, I guess."

"Fair enough," Murphy replied, his brown eyes light with a smile that didn't show on his face. "Apology accepted. Word to the wise, though—never apologize to Zaeed. Nothing he hates more than an apology. Well, except maybe worthless fucking rat-bastard traitors," he finished sharply, his face contorting with spite. The outburst caught Shepard's attention, driving away the last of his sleepiness.

"Aleena mentioned something about the Blue Suns earlier," he said. "That Zaeed got double-crossed. Were you with him for that?"

"Not there in person, no," Murphy answered, regretful. "If I had been, maybe Zaeed wouldn't've gotten shot in the head. When the coup went down, some of the other mercs got to me first and made sure I couldn't help him. Little shits."

Shepard caught himself about to apologize, and killed the word on the tip of his tongue.

"Didn't mean to dig up anything painful," he said, but Murphy just shrugged.

"You didn't know," the mercenary replied, "and if you're gonna work with us, you might as well know where we come from. Nothing wrong with that."

Shepard nodded as he got the rest of the way to his feet, trying to ignore the pain as the scar tissue on his back stubbornly refused to stretch. Looking over at his arm, Shepard noticed the dressings on his wound had been changed. He winced, remembering both the pain of the wound and the stupidity that had helped him get it in the first place.

"Hey, at least whoever shot you didn't use Polonium rounds," Murphy broke into Shepard's thoughts. "I would've lost my arm if Aleena hadn't been carrying around anti-radiation meds."

Shepard shrugged on a nondescript brown jacket over his shirt and nodded, waiting for Murphy to leave before following in his wake out to the ship's bridge.

"He lives!" Aleena called out jokingly as Shepard made his appearance, causing Talitha to look up suddenly from her place near the Asari. The girl ran over to Shepard, hugging him tightly around the legs. After a few moments, she looked up at Shepard and smiled.

"Thank you," she said.

Shepard reached down and put his hand gently on Talitha's head, smiling sadly.

"Don't mention it," he replied. Talitha let him go and ran back to where Aleena was sitting, and apparently a game of cards was in progress between the two of them.

"Hey, Shepard," Zaeed called over. "You ever been off Mindoir before?"

"Can't say I have," he answered. "Why?"

"Because I'm gonna love seeing the fuckin' stupid look on your face when we dock at the Citadel," the older mercenary said, flashing a rare smile. "Make sure I don't miss it, Wrex."

"I'll be right there with you," Wrex chuckled. "Try not to spend your whole share in one place, kid. Women and booze have a way of making that happen."

"I'll try my best," Shepard said, sinking into a chair with a sigh as he tried not to feel overwhelmed by the turns his life had taken since the Batarians had dropped out of the sky and destroyed everything Shepard had loved. His thoughts must have been easy to read, because it wasn't long before Zaeed spoke again.

"If anyone asks," he told Shepard, "don't say who your parents were. Trust me when I say your father had a lot more enemies than he did friends."

"What? Why?" Shepard asked, surprised. "And _how_?"

"What did Karrick do on Mindoir? Farming, factory work, something low-key?"

"Farming, yeah. Also took me hunting whenever he'd go out to get some non-ration meat for dinner."

"Doesn't surprise me he'd want to keep a low profile," Zaeed said. "Don't know what your father was like around you or your mother, Shepard, but when I knew him he was one of the most brutally efficient Alliance soldiers around. A Corsair, actually."

"No shit," Murphy said, briefly looking away from the ship's controls. "I didn't think those spooks actually existed."

"I'm sorry, my father was _what_?" Shepard rejoined, confused by the revelation and more than a little hurt his father would have kept something like this secret from him.

"A Corsair," Murphy said, "is a member of what basically amounts to the Alliance's Special Operations Unit. Sort of an answer to the Turian Special Forces, the Asari Commandos, the Salarian STG, and the Council's Spectres. An extrajudicial weapons and tactics response soldier, who can more or less do whatever they need to in order to get the job done."

"What Murphy the living encyclopedia is trying to say," Aleena clarified, "is that Corsairs tend to kill a lot of people over the course of their time in the position. Dangerous people, at that. People who typically have equally dangerous friends and associates."

"And those people would be more than happy to gun me down in the street if word of who I was ever reached them," Shepard completed the thought, nodding. "Got it. Thanks for the warning, Zaeed."

"Not about to let you get shot by some jumped-up thug with a vendetta," the older mercenary replied. "You're no use to me dead."

"So glad to know you care," Shepard quipped, drawing a chuckle out of Wrex. But his flash of humor passed as quickly as it had come, and the human lapsed back into silence.

"Hey, Massani," Wrex spoke up, "you sure walking back into the Citadel is a good idea? Pretty sure C-Sec wants to see most of us behind bars, and I'm not in the mood for a fight with a ton of goons. Hell if I know why the contact even wants to meet us here, anyway. She never used to be so... public."

"Already got that covered, buddy," Murphy said from the pilot's chair. "I doubt the Citadel would turn away a ship carrying the only two survivors from Mindoir, and especially not when one of them needs medical attention. Udina might not have a ton of pull, but my guess is the Council will see this as good enough of an olive branch to make him shut up for a while."

Wrex shrugged.

"Guess we'll see soon enough," the Krogan mused. "Look out your window, Shepard—we're here."

Shepard pulled himself out of his thoughts and stood up, looking out of the nearest window as the stolen Batarian ship approached—and was completely dwarfed by—the Citadel.

"Holy shit…" Shepard breathed, his eyes going wide at the sight. "That's… it's…"

He trailed off and gave up trying to make sense of the ancient space station, simply staring gobsmacked at the testament to Prothean ingenuity. Zaeed chuckled, glad to see his prediction proven right. He was about to say something when the main speaker on the ship crackled to life, and a voice spoke up on the other end.

"_This is Citadel air traffic control, requesting clarification from the Batarian vessel _Bira'doran. _We do not detect any Batarians on-board your ship; please explain the discrepancy immediately, or we will be forced to scramble air security."_

"Control, this is Colin Murphy, acting pilot of the _Bira'doran_," Murphy promptly replied. "We picked this ship up off of the Mindoir colony, in the process of rescuing some humans that had been taken by Batarian slavers. One of them is in need of medical attention. If you need additional verification, feel free to contact Nassana Dantius, in the Embassy Quarter. Over and out."

After the line had been cut off, Shepard made his way to the pilot's area and sat down in the seat next to Murphy.

"Is Talitha sick?" he asked, not bothering to hide his worry. Murphy sighed.

"Not physically, no," he said, "but the kid's got scars. After you passed out, she started freaking out and was pounding on the door trying to get to you. Aleena had to do some weird Asari mental thing to calm her back down, and ever since then she doesn't want to leave Aleena, either.

"Talitha probably got taken around when the Batarians first touched down, so my guess is she was locked up like that for a while. She needs a trained child psychiatrist looking after her, not a bunch of mercs."

"Yeah," Shepard said, hanging his head in resignation. "I guess you're right."

"Don't worry about it, kid," Murphy said, reaching over and patting Shepard on the shoulder. "She'll be all right. The worst is behind her now, thanks to you."

Shepard took some small comfort from that, but swallowed his reply as soon as the speaker flared to life again.

"Bira'doran_, you are clear to dock,"_ the controller said. _"I repeat, you are clear to dock. Please enjoy your stay at the Citadel. And from one human to another," _the controller finished, _thank you for what you did. Lord knows the Alliance wasn't getting results."_

"We just did what anyone else would've done, Control. _Bira'doran_, out."

The ship cruised the rest of the way towards the docking bay, a silence settling over the mercenary group that was as relieved as it was uneasy.

"I don't trust Dantius."

"You've mentioned that before, Aleena," Wrex said, his voice calm. "This isn't the first job we've done for her, and I doubt it'll be the last. She's got no reason to flip on us."

"And if she does," Zaeed joined in, "we've got a mountain of dirt to bury her under."

"We do?" Aleena said, arching an eyebrow.

Zaeed smiled.

"As long as Murphy hasn't gone and fucked it up, yeah," he answered. "You haven't gone and fucked it up, have ya, Murphy?"

"No, Sir," the pilot replied, a smile in his voice. "The recordings are all stashed away somewhere nice and safe. And no, I haven't told anyone where except you."

Wrex chuckled, giving Zaeed an impressed look.

"You had Murphy running a recorder on Dantius? Not bad."

"I'm still alive for a reason, you know."

The ship finished docking with a slight lurch, and the crew got to their feet for a quick stretch before disembarking. As they made their way to the main door, Zaeed cleared his throat.

"Hang on for a second, guys."

As soon as he was sure everyone was looking his way, he continued.

"Turns out, we do have an ace up our sleeves, just in case," Zaeed said. "But it depends on whether or not you're willing to trust the rookie."

"That depends on what we're trusting him with," Wrex said. "What's the plan, Massani?"

"We give Shepard here the main account card," Zaeed explained, "and he doesn't come with us to meet Dantius. Dantius wires the money through to Shepard, and none of our cards have anything on 'em. Worst case scenario— we get locked up— Shepard can bust us out."

"Because Nassana doesn't know Shepard exists," Aleena mused, thinking over the idea for a few long moments. "It's risky," she said at last, "but at least it's something."

"Too risky," Wrex said. "What if the kid runs off with the cash?"

"I'd still have to find a way off the Citadel," Shepard said, speaking up, "and I can't fly a ship myself. Besides," he finished, staring the Krogan down, "I still owe all of you for getting me off Mindoir. I don't take my debts lightly, Wrex."

The two of them stood locked in a staring contest for a few tense moments, with Aleena ready to jump in immediately if things got ugly.

But in the end, Wrex gave a short nod and took a few steps back.

"Anyone who isn't afraid of me is someone I don't mind watching my back," he said. "Damn shame you weren't born a Krogan, Shepard."

Shepard smiled, and the tension lifted. Aleena let herself slowly relax, and was about to exit the ship when Murphy's voice stopped her cold in her tracks.

"Shit!" the pilot hissed, looking at his gun's combat scanner with narrowed eyes. "We have a serious problem, Sir."

Zaeed wasted no time in walking over and looking at Murphy's scanner, his good eye beginning to burn with anger as he saw what had upset his pilot.

"That double-crossing little bitch," he spat. "Ten soldiers are waiting outside, weapons hot."

"We can take 'em," Wrex grumbled, but Aleena gave him a placating look and shook her head.

"Yeah, we could," she said, "but the rest of C-Sec? I'm not so sure about that, Wrex."

"Fuck," Zaeed said bluntly, itching for a fight but not stupid enough to just throw his life away. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, considering their options.

"Shepard," he said at last, "you stay here. Lock yourself in storage, and don't come out until nightfall. You hear anyone rummaging around, it ain't us. As soon as the coast is clear, come find us and bust us outta jail before Dantius pays the right people and gets bullets put in our fuckin' heads. Think you can do that?"

Shepard nodded, his eyes keen with determination.

"I can."

"Good," Zaeed replied. "You damn well better, because I have a lot of things left to do before I kick the bucket. All right, fellas," he continued, addressing his fellow mercenaries, "let's go face the music."

The four warriors waited until Shepard was out of sight and had radioed Zaeed to confirm his position before disembarking, and sure enough a whole squad of C-Sec goons was waiting for them, weapons hot.

Along with Nassana Dantius, who looked more smugly satisfied than the mercenaries had seen her in years. But the most important thing was to keep up appearances, and Aleena was more than happy to get the show started.

"Nassana?" she breathed, sounding so surprised that it took all of Wrex's self-control not to compliment her acting skill. "What the hell's going on?"

"That's them, officer," Nassana said to a Salarian member of C-Sec. "They're the ones who murdered ExoGeni representative Koral Fortram. Search them, and I'm sure you'll find all the proof you need of that fact."

"What the fuck are you babbling about, woman?" Murphy shot back, the very picture of righteous indignation. "We're just trying to get this poor, injured girl the treatment she needs! The Batarians ruined her life!" He pointed to Talitha, who by now looked utterly panic-stricken and was holding onto Aleena as if her life depended on it.

"And she'll get the help she needs," the C-Sec officer replied, before his eyes darkened. "Can't say the same about you scum, though. Lawson," he finished, gesturing to a nearby human woman who looked to only be a few years older than Shepard, "take the girl where she needs to go. We'll handle the mercs."

"Yes, Sir," Lawson said promptly, her blue eyes softening as she approached Talitha. "Come on, little one," she said gently, kneeling down to look the girl in the eyes. "Let's get you somewhere safe."

Something in her voice seemed to calm Talitha instantly, and the girl let go of Murphy. Lawson picked her up, holding her against her shoulder and whispering something comforting to the child as she turned and walked away. As soon as she was gone, Nassana allowed herself a sneer.

"On your knees, Massani. All of you, on your knees!"

Seeing no other options, the mercenaries complied.

"Your superior officers know you're taking money under the table from a psychotic shrew, boys?" Murphy asked with a smirk, provoking a glare from the Asari.

"Search him first," Nassana said coldly. "And be thorough."

Murphy clenched his gut in anticipation of the strike, but there was only so much he could do to safeguard against a Krogan. The fist slammed into him with brutal force, and when the pilot coughed he tasted blood.

"Yeah, great job beating down a defenseless man, you spineless sack of shit," Zaeed spat, his voice venomous. "You're a disgrace to your people."

"Couldn't've said it better myself," Wrex grumbled, his glare decidedly predatory. "What's your clan, worm?"

"Weyrloc," the Krogan growled. "At least I don't whore myself out for credits, Wrex."

"That's not exactly true, from where I'm looking," Aleena said, smiling. "Your price is just lower than his. No shame in being a cheap lay, though."

Wrex laughed, and the Weyrloc's eyes went wide with rage. He made to charge, but Wrex's laugh never faltered.

"Wait," the Salarian called out, at a look from Nassana. "Don't kill them just yet, Orunk. They need to suffer some, first. Take 'em down to the containment cells in our basement, and let 'em stew for a bit. We'll take care of them just before the sun comes up."

The officer turned to Nassana and nodded as the prisoners were led away, a smile flitting across his thin lips.

"Thank you for your assistance, Miss Dantius," he said. "Fortram was asking some uncomfortable questions, and now we get to tie up a loose end _and_ take the credit for solving the case of his most horrible murder. I won't forget this."

"The pleasure was all mine, officer," Nassana replied, smiling. "Until next time."

The officer turned back to his fellow C-Sec soldiers, his smile vanishing.

"Search the ship," he said. "Murphy mentioned more than one human while they were docking. Find them and blow their brains out. Split up whatever else you find. Consider it a bonus."

"Yes, Sir!"

* * *

Shepard didn't move a muscle when he heard the door to the cargo compartment getting wrenched open. He'd stationed himself behind a few pallets of ammunition, hoping that they would mask his heat signature. That, and the searchers would be too lazy to look any closer.

"Doesn't look like there's anything here," one of them said at last, and Shepard recognized the voice as Turian. "Go head on back to HQ and report to Commander Jeron. I'll do a final sweep here."

"Thanks, man," another voice replied, sounding human. "I owe you a beer."

The Turian laughed.

"For all the crap I let you loot off this ship, you owe me more than one."

"Yeah, whatever. See you back at the base, buddy."

"See you there."

Shepard remained immobile, hoping that the final C-Sec goon would leave without forcing him to get violent.

"Hey, kid," the Turian said, and Shepard felt a shiver lance up his spine. "You can come on out. I swear I won't shoot you."

"Not sure that's good enough," Shepard answered, drawing one of his pistols and readying it. "Got anything better?"

The Turian sighed.

"Fine," he groused. "Nassana Dantius is a corrupt piece of scum, and my CO is even worse. I want to take them both down, and I feel like you want the same thing."

Shepard relaxed, but kept his pistol up and didn't give up his cover quite yet. Sensing his hesitation, the Turian continued.

"Look, if I wanted to kill you, we wouldn't be having this conversation. You'd be a smoking pile of meat on the floor. That good enough?"

Shepard finally broke cover, coming face-to-face with a Turian wearing blue armor and sporting a matching electronic eyepiece over one eye. The Turian held his hands out palms-first, convincing Shepard to power down and holster his pistol. The Turian relaxed as well, holding out one of his hands in greeting.

"Garrus Vakarian," he said, and Shepard took the offered hand, shaking it firmly.

"John Shepard. Nice to meet someone who isn't trying to shoot me, Garrus."

"I can imagine," Garrus said, before looking more closely at Shepard. "The CO mentioned something about Mindoir— were you there when the Batarians hit?"

"Yeah," Shepard said shortly, frowning. "And I was one of the only two that made it out alive and free. Not something I feel like getting into right now, if you don't mind."

"Oh, of course," Garrus said quickly, flustered. "I just… damn. Sorry. That was a shitty thing to bring up."

"Don't worry about it," Shepard said, forcing a small smile on his face. "I get the feeling a lot of people are gonna be bringing that up for a couple years. Might as well get used to it."

He moved over to the pallets of ammunition and began loading his sniper rifle and two pistols, pocketing some extra clips in the process just to be sure.

"The mercs I came here with have info on Dantius," he explained while readying his weapons, "but only Murphy knows where it is. You want to go after her, we have to bust my friends out of… wherever the hell C-Sec dumped them."

"Hmmm," Garrus stalled, thinking. "Might be a bit tricky, but at least the elevator out of here leads right down to the C-Sec HQ. I'll think up some cover story as to why I'm arresting you, and we shouldn't have any trouble getting in. Getting back out with the other mercs, and _alive_ at that… well, that's the tricky part."

"I survived on my own against packs of Batarian slavers for two weeks before Massani and his crew pulled me off Mindoir," Shepard replied, confident. "Something tells me those guys were a lot more vicious than the people C-Sec keeps on their payroll."

"Fair enough," Garrus allowed, "but even if most of them are mouth-breathing incompetents, you throw a small army of incompetent people at a small group of competent soldiers and that story's only got one ending."

"Which will only matter if we give them enough time to get off their asses and come after us," Shepard said. "You have your cover ready?"

"_Our_ cover," Garrus corrected him, a hint of humor taking the edge off his words. "And yeah, I do."

"Nice. So, feel free to arrest me, Officer Vakarian," Shepard said with mock solemnity, holding out his bare wrists. "I promise I won't give you or your partners any trouble."

"Shut the hell up, Shepard," Garrus said with a chuckle as he put the handcuffs on his new accomplice, but Shepard made sure to have gotten rid of his smirk by the time they were in the elevator, headed down to C-Sec.

"Hey, Vakarian," the trooper behind the desk called out distractedly, until she noticed that Shepard was walking next to him. "Hey, who the heck is that? Did you find another human on that merc ship after all?"

"I wish," Garrus groused. "I could use the bonus credits at the end of the month. No, this is just a vagrant I picked up off the streets for loitering. Pretty sure he works for Fist. Gonna ask him a few questions, nothing big. I'll handle all the paperwork."

"Okay," the trooper replied, looking back down at the reports on her desk. "Don't rough him up too bad, though. He's kinda cute."

Shepard's smile was so smug Garrus had to fight not to elbow him in the ribs.

"Don't even start," the Turian said as they kept walking, cutting Shepard off before he could turn his smug grin into equally-smug words.

"My life's been a living hell for the past few weeks, and you won't even let me catch a break," he said a few moments later, his grin gone. "And here I thought we were gonna be friends, Garrus."

"If we can pull this off, maybe we will be," Garrus replied as he pushed the panel to call another elevator, "but for now, I need you focused less on cute girls and more on not getting shot in the face."

"Fair," Shepard said, before smiling again as they got into the elevator. "I'll be sure to put in a good word for you on the way out, though, if you think she's cute."

"Seriously, just stop talking. I think I liked you better when you were brooding."

"I've had enough of that for a long time," Shepard said, rolling his shoulders and trying to focus for what they were about to do. "Besides, I don't think Wrex or Zaeed would be happy if all I did was moan and groan about how my life got ruined."

Garrus said nothing, the _ding_ of the elevator pulling him back into the present. The doors slid open and they each took a step forward, only to be stopped cold in their tracks a heartbeat later.

_Bang._

The sound of the gunshot immediately put Garrus and Shepard on edge, but neither of them had time to react before the gun's owner trained their weapon right on Garrus' forehead. The Turian saw who was aiming the gun at him and his eyes went wide, stunned and confused.

"Miranda?" he asked, beyond shocked to see his fellow C-Sec trooper, Miranda Lawson, looking ready to blow his brains out. "What…" his eyes shifted over toward the other end of the hall just long enough to see the fresh corpse on the ground—one of their group's top Lieutenants— before looking back at Miranda.

"Why…?"

"You weren't supposed to see that, Garrus," she said, her expression sincerely apologetic as her finger prepared to pull the trigger.

"I'm sorry."

* * *

…

…

**A/N: **Looks like things just got a lot more complicated for our dynamic duo! But hopefully they'll be able to make it out of this mess in one piece. Or two, at a minimum.

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and many thanks to **N7HG**, **Elder Sibling** and **Kanukoris** for reading and reviewing! Means a lot.

And speaking of Kanukoris, they're in the process of writing an incredibly good and criminally under-reviewed piece of Mass Effect mercenary fiction called "**Veteran Zero**", which you should totally go read and review if you haven't already. It's really good stuff. Zaeed and Jack-centric, but with a cool cast of supporting characters I can see really coming into their own. So yeah, go read it.

And thanks for reading this chapter, as well! See you next time.

**- JP**

_p.s_. - As far as Miranda and Garrus' ages here goes, Miranda is 20 and Garrus is a couple years older than Miranda. I know Garrus and Shepard are more or less the same age in the main canon, but that wouldn't really work here. So I tweaked it some.


	3. Live Free or Die

**Black Sun Rising**

**Chapter 3: Live Free Or Die  
**

* * *

"You weren't supposed to see that, Garrus. I'm sorry."

_Bang._

Miranda's eyes widened briefly in surprise after she'd pulled the trigger, caught off-guard at seeing bright red blood on the floor instead of bright blue.

Shepard used the momentary opening to knock the gun from Miranda's hands, ignoring the pain burning in his shoulder. The strike was hard enough to throw Miranda off-balance, and Shepard used the adrenaline rushing through him to push his muscles out of their shock. Picking up the dropped pistol, he gripped it as best he could with his hands bound and leveled the sights at Miranda.

"Don't move," Shepard said, biting back a hiss of pain. "You might notice I haven't shot you yet. That's how normal people handle standoffs. Ask questions first, shoot later." He grunted in pain, no longer able to keep himself in check. All the same, the sights of the pistol never wavered. "Goddamn," Shepard cursed, "this _really_ stings. That wasn't very nice."

Garrus had finally gotten over his shock at almost getting shot in the chest, and carefully walked over to Shepard's side.

"What're you doing here, Miranda?" he asked, his eyes both angry and pleading. "Why did you kill the Lieutenant? Why try to shoot me?"

"I wasn't aiming for anything vital," Miranda said, sounding more angry at having been put at a disadvantage than anything else. "You would have been fine, Garrus."

"That doesn't answer his question," Shepard prompted, his voice coldly calm. "Why are you here? Who do you really work for? Because it sure as hell isn't C-Sec."

Miranda stared down the young man leveling her own gun at her head, taking the time to assess her opponent. He had a piercing gaze, and the same hard exterior that so many of her battle-forged colleagues wore almost constantly. An exterior that belied inner-strength fueled by an emotional impulse bordering on zealous.

"My name is Miranda Lawson. I work with Cerberus," Miranda said at last, her anger replaced completely by a calm icy enough to match Shepard's. "You remind me of some of my friends, actually. I'll keep your name in mind next time we recruit, Mister…?"

"Shepard. But no thanks. I'm not interested in working with terrorist groups."

"But you'll go slumming with criminals who kill people for money?" Miranda shot back, smiling acidly. "That makes perfect sense, Shepard."

"How'd you know about that?"

"That girl, Talitha. She told me all about how you rescued her from Mindoir while I was walking her over to the hospital."

The muscles in Shepard's arms reflexively tensed up, tightening his grip on the gun. If Miranda was telling the truth about working for Cerberus, and she knew who Talitha was, there was no way he could let her live.

Garrus saw Shepard's intentions and placed a hand on his new friend's shoulder, trying to calm him down.

"Easy, Shepard," he said. "There's too much she could tell us about Cerberus. We can't kill her."

"No, _you_ don't want to see her get killed," Shepard countered, never taking his eyes off Miranda. "I don't really care about that right now."

"So what, you're going to turn around and start murdering people in cold blood, after what the Batarians did to you? I don't think you're that kind of person, Shepard. And I don't think I'm wrong about that, either."

Shepard stared Miranda down for a few long moments, his teeth grit hard as he tried to make a choice.

"For what it's worth," Miranda said, "I have no reason to want anything to do with Talitha. Unless, of course, you give me a reason. So if you're going to shoot me, Shepard, I suggest you shoot to kill."

Shepard said nothing, his grip on the gun as firm as ever even as his eyes began to show signs of his inner turmoil.

"Shepard," Garrus said urgently, "we need to get moving before anyone else from C-Sec gets down here and finds us standing right next to a Lieutenant's body, holding a murder weapon. Come on. We _need to go_."

Shepard's blue eyes relaxed again, and he sighed heavily before tossing the gun down to Miranda.

"Go," he said shortly, inwardly relieved but fighting to keep up his outward appearance. "And try not to kill anyone else on your way out."

"I only have one other target," Miranda said with a far more genuine smile as she got to her feet. "Nassana Dantius."

"What a coincidence," Garrus rejoined, looking hard at his former colleague. "That's who we're going to get some answers out of, as soon as we bust out the mercs. How about we do this together, and on the way to the cell block you give me some goddamn answers, Lawson?"

Miranda was of half a mind to refuse, but there was no missing the hurt in Garrus' voice at her perceived betrayal. She sighed, relenting.

"Fair enough," she answered. "But when this is done, I walk."

"Deal."

"Good," Miranda replied, before looking back at Shepard. "Hold up your hands."

Shepard did so, and a second later a shot from the pistol had severed the chains of his handcuffs.

"Much better," Miranda said, before the sound of nearby footsteps wiped the teasing smile from her face. "Let's go."

The three of them quickly made their way down the hall and turned off into a smaller corridor, dragging the Lieutenant's body with them and stashing it in a nearby locker.

"Okay," Garrus said as they moved into a different hallway and picked up the pace, "start talking."

"Well, the big cat's already out of the bag," Miranda said. "I'm a Cerberus operative, working undercover on my boss's orders—"

"You mean the Illusive Man," Garrus interjected, but Miranda continued on as if she'd never been interrupted.

"—to take out Nassana Dantius. Her way of doing business is, if you haven't already noticed, incredibly destructive and unpredictable."

"And Cerberus is any better?" Garrus shot back. "Forgive me if I'm not inclined to be generous after finding out you've been feeding me bullshit for the last two years, Miranda."

The Cerberus operative frowned.

"What, you think that I hate all aliens just because I work for Cerberus?"

Garrus frowned as well, but more confused than angry.

"Well… yeah," he answered. "I do, actually."

"Figures. And _we're_ the judgmental ones. Look, Vakarian: you can believe me or not, whatever you want, but I do consider you a friend."

"Last I checked, friends don't try to shoot each other in the face."

"I was aiming for a non-lethal spot on your chest," Miranda snapped back. "I just needed time to get away. If Shepard hadn't played the hero, you'd both have been just fine."

"Barring the hole in my chest, you mean."

"Are we really doing this right now, Garrus?"

"Oh yeah, Miranda. We really are."

She sighed in frustration, making sure a heat sink was chambered in her pistol while Shepard busied himself with keeping his mouth shut.

"I joined Cerberus because I had to," Miranda said after a few moments of tense silence. "They offered a kind of protection I really needed at the time, and still do."

Garrus chuckled, but there was no humor in the sound.

"You seem to have forgotten why people have friends."

"Trust me," the Cerberus operative said seriously, "you wouldn't want to go up against the kinds of people I have gunning for me."

"So I'm supposed to believe you have my best interests at heart, then?"

The cutting tone in Garrus' voice caught Miranda off-guard, and her step hitched ever so slightly.

"Yes," she said at last, rare vulnerability creeping in along the edges of her voice. "Haven't I always?"

Garrus bit his tongue at that, a sinking feeling in his chest.

"I… I'm sorry, Miranda," he apologized. "That was over the line. You're right— I owe you my trust for now, at the very least. But if we ever meet again," Garrus continued, becoming serious, "and you're still running with Cerberus, I'm taking you down myself."

Miranda chuckled.

"I'd expect nothing less, Vakarian."

"How old were you when Cerberus recruited you?" Shepard asked, breaking his silence at last.

"Fourteen, when I left the old life behind me," Miranda answered. "They had me for four years, and then I got tasked with infiltrating C-Sec as my eighteenth birthday present. The Illusive Man has an odd sense of humor," Miranda explained, as the trio finally approached the last hallway before the cell block doors. They shifted back into high alert in the event guards were watching over the new, very dangerous inmates.

Their precaution paid off, as it seemed Garrus' commanding officer had stationed the five most grizzled veterans in his unit in front of the entrance to the holding cells, including the Weyrloc Krogan that had punched Murphy earlier that day.

"Okay," Miranda whispered, "we're only getting one chance at this. Shepard, you're going to need to play our prisoner."

"Any ideas on how to manage that without handcuffs?"

The smirk Miranda gave Shepard in response sent a shiver down his spine.

"I have a few, yeah."

It took her all of five seconds to have a pistol pressed against the small of Shepard's back. She held both of his arms behind his back at their wrists with her other hand as she force-marched him forward, with Shepard protesting perfectly every step of the way.

"Hey! Watch the shoulder!" he called out, the pain in his voice only half a lie. "You want me to hit you with a police brutality suit?"

"As if a court on the Citadel would even hear the case, you scumbag," Garrus joined in, clearly enjoying himself. "And quit acting like you know how legal procedure works, merc."

"That sounded like I was being discriminated against!" Shepard said, raising his voice in order to stifle his urge to laugh. By now the three of them had the other guards' attention, and Weyrloc Orunk stepped forward to address Miranda and Garrus.

"Lawson. Vakarian," he grunted. "Who the hell is that?"

"The last of Massani's mercenary crew," Garrus answered. "Found him slinking around on that Batarian ship they'd hijacked. With your permission, we thought we'd toss him in with the rest of his reprobate friends."

"Heh, go ahead," the Krogan said. "Already worked over the rest of 'em a bit. Might as well give the runt a taste of what he's in for."

As the Krogan stepped aside and let the trio pass into the cell block, the anger on Shepard's face was completely genuine. Miranda made sure to close the door behind them. It didn't take them long to find the rest of the mercenaries being held in cells at the far side of the room, penned in by glowing bars of pure energy. Aleena looked up as they entered, her eyes widening in concern for a brief moment before narrowing in anger.

"So much for our daring rescue," she said lowly, staring daggers at Garrus and Miranda. "Whoever did that to him is getting their head sheared off. Just so you know."

"Oh, you went and got her pissed," Wrex spoke up, sounding very amused. "I hope you weren't planning on dying in some way not involving a ton of pain."

Miranda promptly released Shepard from her grip, while Garrus set about searching for the control to deactivate the barriers. Shepard smiled at Aleena, only wincing slightly as he tried to ignore the new pain in his shoulder.

"It's fine," he told her. "Really. They're with us. Garrus," Shepard explained, gesturing over at the Turian, "wants to take down Dantius and his CO. Miranda," here he pointed over in her direction, "is after Dantius, too. She's with Cerberus."

"Cerberus?" Zaeed broke in, sounding equal parts disdainful and begrudgingly professionally respectful in a way only he could. "Never a dull moment on the job, eh?"

"Don't worry, Mister Massani," Miranda said. "As soon as Dantius is dead, I'll be in the wind. You won't have to worry about me bothering you again."

"Y'hear that, Wrex?" Zaeed called over to the Krogan. "She calls me 'Mister Massani'. Maybe you should take a page on manners from her book."

"And maybe you should get fucked, Zaeed," Wrex shot back, drawing a raspy laugh from his friend.

"Found the control switch," Garrus called over. "Releasing it now." The cell bars vanished with a low _hum_, and the Turian turned his attention to Miranda. "What's that you said about killing Nassana? I need her alive."

"Fuck what you 'need', kid," Zaeed muscled in, glaring at Garrus. "She came after me. After my crew. After my fucking _family_. You have family, Turian?"

Garrus just nodded, saying nothing in the face of Zaeed's barely-restrained fury.

"So you understand me when I say that nothing makes me more ready to commit some brutal fucking acts of murder than some stupid, power-hungry diplomat psycho bitch coming after me and mine. Dantius isn't gonna live to see another sunrise. Get in my way, and neither will you. Is that clear?"

"As crystal," Garrus said stiffly, clearly intimidated but too much of a Turian to give up ground.

"Ease up on the kid, Zaeed," Wrex said. "He'll be no good to us huddled in the corner pissing himself in fear."

The insult snapped Garrus out of his shock, and he glared at Wrex.

"Say that again, merc."

"Oh, so you've got teeth after all," Wrex said, grinning. "Couldn't tell, your kind hides 'em so well."

The sound of a gunshot rang out in the room, stopping everyone cold. Garrus had drawn his pistol and shot from the hip, putting a neat hole in the steel wall less than an inch away from Wrex's right eye.

"The next one won't miss, asshole," Garrus said, tightly-controlled menace in his voice. The tense silence gripped the room for a few more moments, until it was broken by the sound of Wrex's rumbling laughter.

"I like this one, Massani," he said, walking forward and clapping Garrus amiably on the shoulder with enough force to make the Turian stagger. "He's coming with us when this is done."

"What the hell are we, a dog shelter? This is a mercenary crew, not a goddamn charity organization."

"Yeah, yeah. You get to bring in Shepard, I'm calling in my recruitment chit on this guy."

"You're assuming I'll want to tag along with you," Garrus said. "I'm a C-Sec trooper, not a merc."

"A trooper who's about to royally fuck over his CO," Murphy said, flashing a pained smile as he walked slowly out of his cell. He'd gotten just enough medical care to keep him from dying before Dantius wanted, but nothing beyond that. "Face it, Garrus: any way you slice it, you're about to torch all your bridges with C-Sec. Think for minute before torching this one, too."

"We can't afford to talk like the job is already finished," Miranda broke in, becoming impatient. "Even with Garrus and me cracking a way into Nassana's private little sanctuary here, we'll probably meet some resistance along the way."

"Agreed," Zaeed said. "Finally, someone talkin' some fucking sense. How many guards they got posted outside, Miranda?"

"Oh, so she gets a name?" Garrus said, and Zaeed glared at him again.

"My respect is earned, Turian," he said. "Not given. Miranda?" he prompted, turning his attention back to the Cerberus operative.

"Five," Miranda answered, "including Weyrloc Orunk."

"Oh, really," Murphy said, his voice gaining an edge as he felt the pain in his limbs ebbing away in the wake of adrenaline and hate flooding his body. "I do so love the smell of payback in the morning."

"You and me both," Aleena said, flexing her hands into and out of fists as the telltale blue biotic glow began to cloak her purple skin. "Let's go murder some fuckers."

She took point as the group advanced on the door, syncing up her biotic field with Miranda's and using their constructive interference to amplify the power of the combined field. At a nodded signal, the two biotics unleashed their attacks in perfect unison.

The resulting biotic sphere was powerful enough to rip the door completely out of the wall, and take a sizable portion of the wall's steel along for the ride. The slab of metal crushed two of the C-Sec guards into oblivion, and Aleena was quick to advance into the open. Orunk hung back to gain a measure of his adversaries, but his two remaining companions weren't so smart. They charged Aleena, and each of them was rewarded with a whip of biotic energy coiling around their necks for their trouble. The Asari yanked down hard enough to slam her prey into the ground, the impact forceful enough to snap their necks outright.

Zaeed, Wrex and Murphy advanced on Orunk, who had by now resigned himself to the inevitability of battle. Wrex charged first, and the two Krogan clashed in a head-on collision. Wrex kept his footing, but Orunk was sent staggering backwards in a daze from the force of the headbutt. Zaeed drew a long, serrated combat knife from his belt and tossed it over to Murphy, who caught it seamlessly and brought it to face forward. Zaeed laid down just enough suppressing fire to keep Orunk off-balance, relenting only when Murphy had closed to within striking range. Once he had, Murphy lashed out and drove the blade into the sweet spot beneath Orunk's frontal head-plate. Pulling the blade to the right and out, Murphy allowed himself a victorious smile at the sight of Orunk's body as it crumpled and fell to the ground, lifeless, its brain exposed to the open air.

"Nice," Wrex said appreciatively, examining the kill. "Didn't think humans knew about that little trick."

"I got lucky once," Zaeed replied. "Then I got lucky a few more times after that."

Wrex laughed, but as soon as he'd finished the air became thick with tension again.

"Okay," Garrus said, thinking about the best way to approach Dantius' office, "I'm thinking we should send one team the direct way, straight up the stairs, while another team skirts the outside of the building and busts in through the windows. There're seven of us, so the inner team should be four strong, and the outer three. Thoughts, Miranda?"

"Couldn't have said it better myself," she answeredgiving her friend a smile. "Wrex, I assume you want to go in directly?"

"That's the only way to do it, if you ask me."

"I'll make sure he doesn't get himself killed," Aleena said, followed closely by Zaeed and Garrus volunteering for the last two spots on the frontal assault group.

"Looks like the rest of us are on sneaking duty, then," Murphy said. "You guys have fun with your indiscriminate slaughter, and we'll see you up top."

Zaeed calmly regarded his pilot.

"You in shape for this, Murphy?"

"Yes, Sir," Murphy said. "Killing that Krogan did me a world of good. Worse comes to worse, I'll just sleep for a week once we get the hell off this station."

"Works for me," Zaeed said, looking over at Shepard and Miranda. "Good hunting."

"Same to you," Shepard replied. After the former prisoners had reclaimed their confiscated gear from C-Sec security lockers, the strike teams parted ways.

* * *

"Apprehensively: This is bad, Miss Dantius."

"No fucking shit, Kling. I can see that."

The muted sound of a scream followed by a burst of gunfire was too close for comfort, and Nassana Dantius began to seriously consider the possibility of her death in the very near future. The security monitors around her continued to be filled with brief images of explosive violence before becoming overwhelmed with static and shutting off completely, one by one.

"Curiously: The pilot isn't with them," Kling observed, the folds of the Elcor's face moving to reflect his interest. "Inquisitively: Perhaps he expired down in the cell block. Remorsefully: That would be a shame."

"Times like this, I have no idea why I even keep you around."

"Indignantly: Probably because I'm the only person working for you who can navigate your pointlessly complicated surveillance network."

Nassana looked over at Kling and arched an eyebrow in bemused surprise, not expecting that kind of reply from her Elcor. She brushed it off, focusing back on the monitors. They were getting way too close now.

"Why the fuck did I even waste money paying off C-Sec if that slimy little Salarian bastard can't even be bothered to give me adequate security? And that was a rhetorical question," Nassana added pointedly. "Don't answer it."

"Resigned: Very well, Miss Dantius."

"My sister must've made them an offer to come after me," Nassana mused, half to herself. "I really need to put a bullet in her head, one of these days. Or dupe someone into doing it for me, whichever." Her eyes caught someone on a monitor and went wide. "Wait," she said slowly, "is that… Vakarian? Oh, you fucking traitor." Nassana sneered hatefully, pulling up her Omni-Tool and punching in a complex series of commands. "You'll pay for this."

The Asari began to pace around her office, and Kling turned away with a sigh. If his employer died here tonight, he was likely not going to be that far behind her. He turned to look out the window, determined to at least have one last good look at the Citadel skyline—

Only to find himself staring at three heavily-armed, scary-looking humans.

One of them, the younger male of the two, put a raised finger to his lips in what Kling recognized as the Human gesture for remaining quiet. The Human used his free hand to gesture for Kling to move to the side, and he was all-too-eager to comply once he saw the other two humans readying their weapons. Kling had just managed to move completely into one of the side rooms when a massive concussive detonation destroyed the main door and rocked the office, almost throwing the Elcor off balance.

Kling made it the rest of the way over to the corner, lowered his head, closed his eyes, and thought of his family.

Nassana had barely regained her footing from the force of the biotic blast when a searing jolt of pain ripped through her left leg, blinding her and throwing her off-balance. She stumbled to the floor, pain still searing her awareness, and it took her a few seconds to realize that her knee had been blasted apart by a sniper rifle shot fired at almost point-blank range. Nothing else would have had force that completely devastating, yet precise. The lower half of her leg was lying in a pool of blood on the floor, and Nassana felt a chill sweep hungrily through her limbs.

"Man, it must really suck being on the other end of a double-cross for once, huh?" she vaguely heard Aleena's taunting voice speak above her, and hated it with every fiber of her being she still possessed.

"Fuck… you."

"Wow. That was eloquent, Nassana. Really, I'm choking up."

"Stop playing with your kill and just finish it off," Wrex said, leveling his shotgun at Nassana's head.

"You're no fun, Wrex."

"I'm just being practical. We need to do this and get the hell out of here before the rest of C-Sec gets wind of what's going on."

"Vak—" Nassana forced out through her shock, her mind growing blurry. "Vakarian."

Garrus snapped to attention at the sound of his name, walking over and glancing at Wrex to make sure he didn't get any ideas before looking at Nassana.

"What is it?"

"C-Sec… they know it was you who led the mercs up here. I sent proof to the Salarian. Irref—_hak—_ugh. Irrefutable. You're done at C-Sec."

"Yeah, and I'm real torn up about that," Garrus said, his tone biting. "I was gonna quit anyway, once we finished here. Lay low long enough, people in the right places will just forget I even existed."

"Not… not all. Heh. Sol… Solana."

The mention of his sister's name set off every instinctive alarm Garrus had, and he was down on one knee in an instant. He grabbed Nassana by the collar of her suit and hauled her up just far enough to look her in the eye, right on the brink of snarling as he did so.

"What the hell do you know about her?" Garrus said, his voice dangerous enough to get Zaeed to take notice. "Talk!"

"Not… not just her," Nassana said, her voice now little more than a whisper. "Your parents, too. Put… put a hit out on them. Might want to go—_hak_—home. Be dead inside a week, you trait—"

Wrex had barely had enough time to register that he was no longer holding his shotgun before he heard it fire, and then again and again, two more times. By the time Garrus was just pulling the trigger on an empty clip, Nassana Dantius' body was nothing more than a red smear on the floor speckled with drops of blue.

"Damn," the Krogan breathed. "I don't care _what_ you think, Massani. He's coming with us."

"No, I'm not," Garrus said as he finally gave Wrex his weapon back. "I need to get to Palaven. My family is in danger, you heard what Dantius said!"

"Solicitously: Mister Vakarian, please do not do anything too rash. There is still hope for your family."

Kling's voice drew the attention of the mercenary crew over towards the Elcor, who had finally come out of hiding.

"Helpfully: Miss Dantius' threat is not as immediate as it seemed. Explicatively: All complex Omni-Tool requests made by Miss Dantius are delayed at the central terminal, pending my approval. I inserted this safe-guard specifically to protect against… irrational acts like this one. Optimistically: There is still time to cancel the kill order, and keep your family safe."

Garrus smiled, and his smile grew larger and larger as the significance of the Elcor's words sank in.

"Thank you," he said after a few moments, his right eye glistening with a single unshed tear. He blinked it away. "Thank you."

"Deferentially: It was no problem. Melancholically: I have a family of my own. I understand. Regretfully: However, I lack the ability to erase Miss Dantius' private video records. Those have already been backed up on a secure secondary C-Sec server, and I do not know where it is. Concernedly: That footage will contain visual evidence of your murder of Miss Dantius. It will condemn you to the most extreme exclusion status on the Citadel. Mournfully: You will never be able to come back here again, much less continue to serve in C-Sec. Commemoratively: It is their loss. Their ranks will be lessened by your absence. Addendum: Mister Massani, I have taken the liberty of transferring the funds into your account for the job that Miss Dantius had been withholding from you. Tentatively: I hope you do not mind."

"Not at all, my friend," Zaeed answered, giving a small smile. "Not at all."

Garrus took half a step back as _that_ news sunk in, feeling fairly overwhelmed by the emotional whiplash that the last few minutes had been.

"Well, shit," he sighed. "Looks like I gotta find somewhere else to be, then."

Aleena looked over at Zaeed, her eyes loaded with an unspoken thought that was half-question, half-statement. Zaeed shrugged and gave a short nod. Aleena smiled.

"Well, I'd say you proved yourself in getting us here, Garrus," she said. "There's a spot open in our ranks, if you want it. And," the Asari added, smiling pointedly, "your crime-fighting days might not be over after all, if you take us up on the offer."

Garrus arched an eyebrow at that, puzzled.

"What do you mean?" he asked. "Merc gangs aren't police forces, last I checked."

"We aren't," Aleena agreed, "but I've been thinking… between you and Shepard, we'd have enough skill and firepower in our corner to finally start making moves against the target we've been wanting to hit all this time:

"The Blue Suns."

Garrus had definitely heard of the legendary mercenary company before, and the prospect of hunting them down definitely piqued his curiosity.

"Hmmm… well," he said, "when you put it _that way_… how can I refuse?"

Aleena's smile widened.

"You can't."

"Glad we settled that, then," Zaeed broke in. "Now, can we get the hell outta here?"

"Hey, Massani!"

The mercenaries looked over in the direction of the voice, surprised to find that Miranda had somehow snuck back out to the walkway on the other side of the now-broken window. She was standing at the edge, her long dark hair moving slightly in the wind.

"Thanks for the help," she said, before looking over to Shepard. "We'll be in touch," Miranda continued, before finally looking at Garrus and smiling. "Thanks for doing my job for me, Vakarian," she said. "Take care of yourself out there."

Garrus opened his mouth to reply, but Miranda had already crouched down and leapt up into a flawless backflip that sent her over the side of the walkway and out of sight. She was gone.

"All right, then," Wrex groused. "_Now_ can we go?"

* * *

Murphy looked around at the interior of the ship the crew had just broken into and sighed, shifting his gaze over toward Aleena.

"Look," he said, "I get that we have to go below-board in order to avoid getting shredded by the defense cannons on our way out the door, but are you absolutely sure we couldn't have found a better ship? This thing looks like a Quarian built it out of third-string salvage. A really talented Quarian," the pilot allowed, "but still."

"It just has to get us to Omega," Zaeed said. "We can restock there, before we head out to wherever that bastard Vido was last seen."

"Works for me, Sir," the pilot replied. "I should be able to keep the girl together until we hit the Mass Relay."

"Make sure you do."

Zaeed walked back into the interior of the ship, probably intent on passing out.

Aleena looked at Wrex, a smile playing on her lips.

"C'mon," she said, taking the Krogan by the hand. "We have things to talk about, Wrex."

Wrex didn't look too pleased about the prospect of another woman doing the 'talking' thing they were so good at—probably about her 'feelings'—but he followed Aleena all the same. The last thing Shepard saw was Aleena whispering something to Wrex… something that made him walk a lot faster all of a sudden.

Garrus said his short farewells to Murphy and Shepard and left the main cabin, and Shepard couldn't blame the Turian for needing some sleep after the night they'd had. Murphy eased the ship out of docking and set it on a trajectory for the Mass Relay before stifling a yawn with his hand and slowly getting out of the pilot's chair.

"Damn, I'm beat," he said blearily. "Ship should be fine on auto-pilot for a while; I gotta go grab some z's, Shepard. How're your arms holding up?"

Shepard shrugged, relieved that the pain was lessening.

"Been better, been worse."

"Fair enough. Sleep well if you do, kid. I'll see you at the Relay."

"You're really planning on sleeping for that long?"

Murphy chuckled as he paused in the threshold of one of the doors leading away from the main cabin.

"Yes. Yes, I am."

And then Murphy was gone, leaving Shepard alone with his thoughts. He was transported back to the ruins of Mindoir every time he closed his eyes, and was actually grateful for the sharp pains in his arms that jolted him awake again. But it wasn't too long before their annoyance outpaced their utility, and Shepard set out to find medigel for finishing off treatment on his two bullet wounds.

It took him a few minutes to track down the nearest dispenser, but Shepard was relieved to see it wasn't empty.

As he reached in to pull out a packet of medigel, though, Shepard thought he heard footsteps somewhere behind him.

"Murphy?" he called out, turning his head halfway over his shoulder. "Aleena?"

After a few moments passed in silence, Shepard attributed the noise to a squeaky piece of scrap metal and made his way back into the main cabin. Shrugging off his jacket, he slung it over the back of a nearby chair. His shirt was next to go, joining his jacket on the chair. His scars stung slightly in the open air, but Shepard ignored that and moved to begin applying the medigel—

Only to hear something directly behind him that most definitely sounded like a gasp. A gasp made by someone whose voice Shepard didn't recognize. But by the time he'd spun around, the new visitor had recovered their bearings and Shepard found himself staring down the barrel of a pistol. The person holding the gun took a few slow steps back, allowing Shepard to get a better look.

It was a girl who looked to be Shepard's age, but Shepard could only guess that based on how she looked everywhere other than her face… because her face was covered by a containment suit helmet, a purple-tinted barrier that reduced her eyes to two points of light within a pale fog. It looked like Murphy's instincts had been more or less dead-on: the current owner of the ship that Zaeed's crew was currently hijacking was most definitely a Quarian.

"My name is Tali'Zorah nar Rayya," she said, her voice slightly distorted by her helmet. "You have twenty seconds to explain who you are, and what the hell you and your friends are doing on my ship. You should probably start talking."

* * *

…

…

**A/N:** Man, that chapter was fun to write for several reasons. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did making it. The best thing about Mass Effect is its awesome cast of characters, and I hope I did the newcomers justice here. Also I loved having the chance to write an Elcor, because Elcor are the coolest aliens in the series as far as dialogue goes.

As to Miranda being a bit more open here than she is in canon, at least with regards to Garrus, she's also about a decade younger than she is in ME2, so I figure she's got some time before she turns into the ice-cold operator we all know and love.

Also, last but certainly not least, I need to recommend **Kanukoris**' awesome Jack and Zaeed-centric mercenary fic **Veteran Zero** once again. And I'm going to keep doing so until the number of reviews it has goes up. Trust me when I say it's very enjoyable, well-written and very much worth your time. So check it out.

Thanks for reading, and see you next time!

**- JP**

_p.s. - Tali!  
_


	4. Tali

**Black Sun Rising**

**Chapter 4: Tali**

* * *

"Umm…" Shepard stalled, caught off-guard by Tali's sudden ultimatum. "Can I take care of fixing these bullet wounds first? They really hurt. I promise I won't try to attack you, or anything."

Tali thought the question over for a moment before nodding.

"Go ahead," she said, seemingly fairly confident that she was the only one armed. "Try anything, though—"

"I just said I wouldn't."

"I know, I heard you. It was just a reminder. Get to it, Human."

"My name's Shepard," Shepard replied as he began to apply the medigel, sighing in relief as the pain in his arms dulled and vanished. He had turned back around to treat his wounds, giving Tali another look at Shepard's various scars and the telltale brand on his back.

"That's a Batarian slaver's brand," she said quietly, sounding equal parts pitying and horrified. "How did you survive getting caught by them?"

"Not easily," Shepard said as he turned around, before smiling tiredly at Tali. "Thanks for not just shooting me on sight, Tali."

"Figured I'd wait to hear your explanation first," she said, before her gaze turned slightly downward. "Would you mind, uh, putting a shirt on? It's… distracting."

"What? Oh," Shepard said, quickly fighting back the urge to blush as he realized Tali was right. "Yeah. Sorry."

When he'd finished getting dressed, Shepard sat down on one of the nearby couches and looked over at her.

"You want to sit down?"

"I'm fine over here, thanks."

Shepard shrugged.

"Okay. Well, we—my friends and I, I mean—we're only on your ship because we needed a way off the Citadel that wouldn't be easily noticed."

"Flying out under the radar?" Tali asked, suspicious. "Why?"

"Because, well… we may have killed a high-ranking, corrupt Asari diplomat who double-crossed us and tried to kill us instead," Shepard admitted. "That might have happened."

"Wonderful," Tali groused. "That's just great. So not only is there a Krogan on board my ship, but he's a trained assassin. I don't suppose I could ask you all to leave politely, could I?"

Shepard thought about several possible reactions from Zaeed to that request, and shook his head.

"I wouldn't recommend it, no. The boss doesn't do 'polite'. But we were planning on going to Omega… is there something we could get you there in exchange for using your ship?"

"Omega?" Tali echoed, her eyes widening under her helmet. "Why would you want to go _there_, after you almost got killed _here_?"

"I think my friends have contacts there."

"And you consider a bunch of mercenaries to be your 'friends'? Guns for hire aren't exactly the most loyal people, Shepard."

"I know," Shepard said. "But they could have left me to die on Mindoir, and they didn't. I owe them a lot for that, at least. Besides," he added, smiling slightly, "I don't think any of us would try to backstab anyone else in our group. They'd get killed by the rest of us pretty quick."

Tali said nothing, thinking hard and looking for any possible way out of the rather sticky situation she'd been forced into.

"Hey, Tali."

"What? I'm kind of busy over here, Shepard."

"You sure you don't want to sit down? Might help you think better."

"Yes, I'm sure," the Quarian replied tersely. "And stop asking me questions. I'm the one holding the pistol!"

Shepard took a closer look at the gun in Tali's hand, and couldn't keep from smiling.

"You do know the safety's still on, right?"

"No, it isn't," Tali said, sounding mildly offended. "See, look." She turned the gun sideways, pointing for extra effect at a small dial on the side of the gun. "No safety."

"Maybe if you were using a Quarian pistol, sure," Shepard said, "but that's not a Quarian pistol. It's a Turian one. Safety's the dial on the other side. That one's for changing the rate of fire."

Tali was quiet as she turned the gun over in her hands, checking to verify Shepard's claim. When she saw he was right, she sighed.

"Damn it. That's a ridiculous design flaw." Tali looked over at Shepard, tilting her head slightly to the side as her eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly in curiosity.

"Why didn't you just disarm me?" she asked. "You knew you had me."

Shepard smiled again, but this time Tali was caught off-guard by the gentle sadness in his eyes.

"I've had enough fighting to last me for a while," he said. "If there was an alternative, I was gonna take it."

Tali stood still for a few moments, before relenting and walking over to join Shepard on the couch—though she was careful to leave a cushion's worth of space between them.

"Can I ask you a question, Tali?"

"If I said 'no', would that stop you?"

Shepard chuckled.

"Sorry," he said. "It's just… I've never seen a Quarian outside of a codex before."

"And?" Tali prompted, feeling like she was missing something.

"And… I want to know more about your people," Shepard said. "Why, is that weird?"

"For a human, yeah," Tali said. "Most of you don't pay us much mind."

"Not our fault you don't leave Rannoch apart from going on Pilgrimages," Shepard replied. "I know—I knew—a lot of people back home who would've loved to learn more about the Quarians."

"Well," Tali said, "it's not like that's _our_ fault. We only just made peace with the Geth during my father's generation. Excuse us for actually wanting to put roots down in our homeworld again."

"Hey, I didn't mean it like that," Shepard said quickly, holding his hands out in apology. "Sorry."

They sat in an increasingly-awkward silence for a few moments, until Shepard cleared his throat and tried again.

"I'm curious," he said, "why do you still use the old style of ship names?"

"Like I said, my father and mother were part of the generation that ended the war with the Geth. For them, the ships of the Migrant Fleet were their homes before Rannoch. In a few generations, I guess the tradition will change, but for now…" she shrugged. "What's that Human expression about old habits?"

"They die hard," Shepard finished. "So, are you on your Pilgrimage now?"

"In a manner of speaking," Tali answered. "It isn't quite the rite of passage it used to be during the days of the Migrant Fleet, but it's still a tradition we hold onto to remember the struggles of our ancestors. I still have to bring something back to my people—but because I want to, not because it's needed for our survival. I just want to help them as best I can."

"That's a noble goal," Shepard said, now very glad that Tali had decided not to shoot him. He was enjoying this much more than bleeding out on the floor. "I don't know if I could've left home for something like that."

"Well, you're far away from home right now, aren't you?"

"Yeah," Shepard said, some of the light dimming in his eyes. "Not by choice, though."

Tali intuited what the Batarians must have done to Shepard's family, and she pressed her hands to her helmet with a groan.

"Oh, Keelah," she said, "I'm such an idiot. Sorry, Shepard. I shouldn't have… sorry," she finished weakly, looking away from him and lowering her head.

"Not your fault," he said simply. "You didn't know."

There was another silence, this one broken occasionally by the sound of nervous fidgeting from both of them.

"So," Shepard said at last, reaching for one last question before he'd try not making an ass out of himself and just dropping the conversation, "what's with the helmet? I'd have thought a generation would be all the Quarian people would need to correct their immune systems, seeing how smart you are."

"It's mostly just to make sure the air I'm breathing is filtered and clean," Tali explained, "just like the other organic races. But it also protects from rocks, I guess."

Shepard blinked, taken slightly aback.

"What? Rocks?"

"Yeah, rocks," Tali repeated, looking at Shepard with slightly annoyed puzzlement. "You know, the hard things you throw at people if you don't like them very much."

"I know what a rock is, Tali," Shepard said. "I was just surprised people would throw them at you. That's pretty low."

"And that's the understatement of the night," Tali replied. "But yes, not all of the old stereotypes have died off yet. Some species—Humans, Turians, Salarians, whatever—still think we're nothing more than a bunch of scavenging thieves. It's a pain."

"I bet," Shepard said, sympathetic. "Sorry you have to deal with that garbage, Tali."

"Eh, I can manage," she said dismissively, before her eyes softened just a bit. "But thank you, Shepard," she said sincerely. "I think I can count the number of times someone's said something like that to me on one hand, and you know how few fingers I have."

Shepard laughed, and Tali allowed herself a small chuckle. The chuckle quickly turned into a yawn, though, and she got slowly to her feet.

"I'd forgotten how late it was," she said. "I'm going to sleep, Shepard. We can talk about Omega once the rest of your buddies are awake."

"So, you're fine coming with us?"

"Not exactly," Tali said, "but it's not like I can out-gun this many professional killers, either. Looks like it's diplomacy this time."

Shepard nodded.

"Fair enough. Sleep well, Tali'Zorah nar Rayya."

"You too, Shepard."

Shepard watched her go with a smile—a smile that faded as his eyes drifted slowly downward, widening as they went. Protective or no, the Quarian environmental suit didn't leave much to the imagination, and Shepard hadn't found the time between rounds of target practice to get to know many girls on Mindoir.

"Is there something I can help you with, Shepard?"

The question jolted him back into the present with a shock, and Shepard looked up and realized Tali was glancing back at him over her shoulder, the teasing lilt in the question impossible to miss.

_Oh god._

"Nope! No. I'm fine, thanks. Great," he half-stammered, wanting to curl up into a ball and die. Tali was laughing as she left the room, and Shepard found himself smiling again as he sat on the couch.

It had been far too long since he'd heard the sound of genuine, carefree laughter like that. It was a nice sound to hear.

"_John, stop making those faces. You look like a drunk Varren!"_

Tali's laughter faded into the sound of his mother's, and Shepard shut his eyes hard against it. Finding that did nothing, he un-holstered one of his pistols and began pulling it apart with methodical, practiced precision. Picking up a nearby rag and a bit of grease and oil—and hoping ship-grade material would work for firearms just as nicely— he set about cleaning the weapon.

It was a calm, quiet activity that required little to no thought. Which was exactly what Shepard knew he needed right now.

And that was how Tali found him when she came back into the room a few minutes later, intently applying the finishing touches to the pistol and reassembling it. He holstered it and carefully placed the cloth, oil and grease back on the table where he'd found them.

"Don't worry," Tali said with that lilt still in her voice, "I won't make you pay me back for the supplies."

"Thanks," Shepard said with a tired smile, before taking off his shoes and shifting to lying down on the couch. He wiggled his toes, sighing happily at being free of military boots. "Something wrong?" he asked next, concerned. "Thought you'd be asleep by now."

"I was planning on it," Tali said, before beginning to shift her weight from one foot to the other and back again, clearly uncomfortable. "But there were… um… complications."

"Complications?" Shepard echoed, arching an eyebrow. "That's a little vague."

"Come on, Shepard, you know what I mean."

"No, I really don't," he insisted, all the while putting the pieces together and struggling not to give the game away. "Please, elaborate."

"My bed was…" Tali hesitated for a moment, then took a breath and plowed on ahead. "It was already occupied! By a Krogan and an Asari, no less. There. There you have it. I won't be able to sleep there ever again, not unless I torch the cot and buy a replacement.

"Are you happy now, Shepard?"

He looked over at Tali and smiled, the look in his eyes telling her that he was both very happy, and had known exactly what she'd meant earlier.

"You're evil," she said, walking over and pulling Shepard's legs off the couch, creating enough room for her to sit down. Tali ignored his half-squawked 'Hey!' of protest, settling back into the couch with a comfortable sigh.

"If I'm not getting any sleep tonight because of your friends," she said matter-of-factly, "then neither are you. Keep whining about it, and I'll call up Nahv'dar."

"Nahv'dar? Who's that?"

"My best friend," Tali answered, and Shepard could see her eyes glow just a little brighter with happiness. "He's a Geth."

"Your best friend is a _Geth_?" Shepard asked, surprised. "And it's a 'he'?"

"Well, I don't think Nahv'dar has a gender, technically," Tali said, not even appearing to register Shepard's shock. "But he definitely doesn't sound like a woman, so I just go with 'he'."

"Why not 'it'?"

Tali looked at Shepard with a horrified expression in her eyes, and he immediately regretted the question.

"Because that's cruel and soulless, that's why," Tali said, indignant. "Would you like it if I just referred to you as 'The highly-evolved primate' all the time? 'Oh look," she began to pantomime, 'there goes the highly-evolved primate. It's a miracle they ever stopped throwing their own feces at each other!'"

Tali finished with a pointed look at Shepard, who was pretty sure he'd turned red with shame.

"Okay, I get it; I get it," he apologized. "I'm sorry I said something so insensitive, Tali. I just can't wrap my head around a fully sentient AI. We barely even had Vis back on Mindoir."

Tali sighed, her eyes losing some of their fire behind her faceplate.

"No, I'm sorry," she said. "I overreacted. I guess I just assumed everyone had met a true synthetic at least once. That's what I get for not spending more time off Rannoch."

Shepard looked over at Tali as she sat dejected on the couch and kicked himself mentally. Determined to make amends, he refocused and tried one more time to start a conversation that wouldn't end with his foot squarely in his mouth.

"Tell me about it," he said, calmly curious. Tali looked at him, confused.

"About what?"

"About Rannoch," Shepard said. "I'd like to learn about it. Really."

"Well, there isn't much to it, outside of the places we've managed to irrigate with Geth assistance," Tali said, sounding slightly embarrassed in a way that made Shepard want to smile again. "It's just a lot of dry rocks, with some dry soil and dry desert sand thrown in."

"But it's your home," Shepard said, his voice carrying gentle insistence in it—insistence, and more than a little pain. Tali wondered if Shepard even knew how much about himself he conveyed in his words, for those who cared to listen.

"There has to be something special about it, or it wouldn't be home."

"Well," Tali said, "The sunrises and sunsets are beautiful. I don't think I've ever seen as many colors in the sky in one moment as there are during a Rannoch sunset. Oh, and there's this animal there that's related to the Varren, but they're herbivores. Still didn't stop Veetor from running away screaming from them at one point, though. I miss him. And Reegar." Tali laughed. "Maybe you'll meet them someday, Shepard. Good guys, but so stubborn sometimes. You'd probably get along great. Shepard?"

Tali looked over and saw that Shepard's eyes were closed, and that he was breathing in the slow, gentle rhythm of a sleeper. His lips were curved in a fragile smile, hopefully enough to keep any nightmares at bay.

Smiling in kind underneath her faceplate, Tali got up from her seat and gently lifted Shepard's legs back up onto the couch, making sure he was stable before walking over to a nearby chair.

She sank down into it with a tired sigh, closed her eyes, and dreamed of home.

* * *

…

…

**A/N:** Yeah, this chapter is short, but it's sort of a calm before the next storm, and I wanted to make sure these two got to spend some time together without EXPLOSIONS ruining the mood in the same chapter. Because upstaging Tali is not allowed.

I hope you enjoyed it, length notwithstanding, and thanks for reading yet another chapter!

And don't worry- just how the Quarians made peace with the Geth will be explained, as will the whereabouts (or lack thereof) of the Reapers in this universe's current cycle. I just hate crowbarring in expository dialogue, so there you go.

…

And if you're hungry for more awesome Mass Effect mercenary fanfic, and for some reason you haven't done this the other times I've mentioned it, go read **Kanukoris'** great Zaeed and Jack-centric mercenary fic **Veteran Zero**. It's got action, tension, explosions, and a really cool setting/cast of supporting characters that are a lot of fun to spend time with. Go check it out already!

…

p.s. – As a bonus for people who actually read the a/n's, here's a thing: the name of Tali's best friend back on Rannoch, Nahv'dar, is a phonetic alteration of the Kurdish word 'navder' (missing an accent over the 'e' because of my American keyboard), which means roughly "A large group of people", or "a group of soldiers". According to Wiktionary, anyway.

Take that how you will. ;)


	5. Omega

**Black Sun Rising**

**Chapter 5: Omega**

* * *

Tali woke up feeling less groggy than usual, and rationalized it as a preemptive adrenaline rush in the face of dealing with a Krogan and several hardened mercenaries. Shepard was still sleeping on the couch across from her, and Tali quietly marveled at how young he looked. Gone was the gaze hardened by the trauma of slavery, and his gentle breathing was a far cry from the guarded edge of his normal voice. He couldn't have been older than sixteen, still a good three years Tali's junior.

Standing up and stretching out the soreness in her muscles, the Quarian figured it'd be better to make first contact with the mercenaries on her own terms, rather than letting them come to her. As she was leaving, she saw Shepard shiver slightly. Spotting a nearby blanket she'd been using as a dust-proofer, Tali shook it out and placed it over the sleeping soldier. Shepard stopped shivering, and Tali smiled beneath her helmet.

That done, she made her way out of the cabin and back towards what had used to be her room. Along the way, she found herself reflecting with bemusement on what her father would think of her. Not only had her ship been hijacked without her so much as protesting, but she'd gone as far as to talk, at length, with one of the hijackers. And a Human, no less.

This was definitely something she was leaving out of the official Pilgrimage report when it got sent to the Admiralty Board.

"So, I take it this is your ship?"

The question yanked Tali out of her thoughts and back into the present, and she started slightly at the sight of the Asari she'd seen sleeping in her bed the previous night.

"That depends on how you define 'mine'," Tali said, "but yes, at least it used to be."

"Well, thanks for letting us use it."

"I didn't _let_ you do anything," Tali replied, sounding miffed. "You just sort of… showed up and settled in."

"True, but you could've activated the Geth in the cargo bay. You didn't. So thanks."

"I don't really like firefights," Tali said. "Besides, by the time I'd figured out what was going on, we'd already left the Citadel. Depressurizing the ship mid-flight would have been pretty stupid."

The Asari smiled.

"Yeah," she said, "you're right on that one. Well, when we get to Omega I'm sure you'll be compensated for the trouble."

"Just letting me go back to my Pilgrimage would be compensation enough, but thanks. I'm not trying to get shot up by a bunch of thugs."

The Asari's smile widened, a teasing light playing in her eyes.

"I'm sure Shepard would be more than happy to keep them off your back for you."

"I don't think… wait, what?" Tali asked, catching up to the implication. "You didn't… did you?"

"What, spy on you? Nah, I was too busy last night," the Asari said. "Just saw the two of you passed out in the main cabin this morning. Figured there was a reason for the goofy smile on Shepard's face."

There were very few times Tali actually felt glad she was wearing a helmet. This was, however, one of those times.

"We didn't do what you're thinking we did, you know."

"I wasn't thinking that," the Asari said, seeming to be enjoying herself quite a bit. "If you had, I'm pretty sure you'd be down with a high fever and a mild infection. I'm not stupid, kid. That, and I'd be willing to bet ten thousand credits Shepard's clueless when it comes to that sort of thing."

"I'm not a 'kid'," Tali said, bristling slightly. "My name is Tali'Zorah nar Rayya."

"I'm Aleena," the Asari replied. "The lazy Krogan sleeping back there is Urdnot Wrex, and I'm sure you'll meet the rest of us soon enough." She paused, considering something. "Tali'Zorah?" she said at last. "That make you Rael'Zorah's daughter?"

If Tali was surprised by Aleena making the connection, she hid it well.

"Yes, it does. How do you know that name?"

Aleena shrugged.

"Pays for mercs like me to keep up with politics. Either the politicians are paranoid about their own safety, or paranoid because they want someone dead—however you cut it, people like me always end up running in political circles eventually."

"It's a good thing no one wants my father dead, then," Tali said.

Aleena laughed.

"Relax, Tali. Even if someone in the Fleet wanted to take out your old man, none of them could afford me."

"Good to know."

The two of them moved back into the main cabin, taking seats across from each other and waiting until everyone else started waking up and filtering in.

"Wait, so," Tali said after a few moments, the realization slowly dawning on her. "You and Wrex…?"

"Yup."

"Really?"

"Uh huh."

"But…" Tali tilted her head to the side, curious but also slightly embarrassed by the nature of her question. "How does that even, y'know… work?"

Aleena smiled, reminded for a moment of her own daughter. She couldn't wait to get back to Omega and see her again.

"Basically the same way it works for most everyone else," she explained. "We Asari are pretty adaptable when it comes to that sort of thing."

"Oh, I know that. I guess I just wasn't expecting a Krogan to be all…" Tali gestured vaguely with her hands, unsure of how to put it.

"Most of them aren't," Aleena said, "at least not to non-Krogan. But Wrex, he's different. Something special, even. But don't ever tell him I said that," Aleena finished, looking at Tali seriously. "I'd never live it down."

"Ha ha," a low laugh rumbled from behind them, "too late for that!"

"Shit," Aleena cursed, putting her hand to her forehead as Tali looked up to see a large, red-plated Krogan standing a short distance away from where they were sitting.

"This your ship, kid?" Wrex asked, looking over at Tali. She sighed.

"Yes. Is everyone going to keep calling me 'kid'? I have a name."

"Well, maybe if you said it, we wouldn't be having this problem."

"It's Tali. Tali'Zorah."

Wrex thought for a moment, and then smiled.

"You mean like the Adm—"

"Yes, he's my father," Tali cut him off. "Keelah, do I just need to put it on a glowing sign around my neck?"

"Couldn't hurt," Wrex said, still smiling. He glanced over to Shepard, who was just now waking up. "Looks like the rookie's awake."

"And just in time, too," Murphy's voice joined in from the far side of the cabin, where he stood next to Zaeed. "We're moving in on the Mass Relay. I take back everything bad I ever said about this ship—if it's one thing, it's fast."

"Because that's what I built it for," Tali spoke up. "No guns, no frills. Just the essentials and a couple of damn good engines."

"Well done," Zaeed said, moving into the cabin as Shepard pushed himself to a sitting position and began putting his boots back on. "You out here on your Pilgrimage?"

"I am," Tali answered, getting to her feet. "You…" her voice became awed as she realized who she was speaking to. "You're Zaeed Massani."

"The one and only," Zaeed said, looking amused by the stunned expression Tali's eyes were making beneath her helmet. "You all right over there?"

"I… I didn't think you were actually real," Tali said. "Your name, it's like a myth for my generation. I… wow," she sputtered at last, sitting down again. Aleena looked over at Zaeed, curious.

"There a story here we don't know about, Massani?"

"Back in my early Alliance days," Zaeed explained as Garrus entered the room, completing the crew, "there was a distress call that went up near the ship I was stationed on. Turned out a couple of ships from the Flotilla had gotten lured out from the main group and attacked by some Batarian scumbag slavers.

"We went in with a small strike team, trying to take them off-guard and keep 'em from warning the second ship. Didn't quite work out. We pushed through the first ship and liberated it, but I was the last one in my squad standing."

"With one more ship to go?" Garrus broke in. "Damn. What'd you do?"

"I got a message from the Quarian crew on the other ship that the Batarians'd set the engine's core to overload in half an hour, askin' if I could please hurry the hell up and come bail them out," Zaeed continued. "So I got in a shuttle and went over to the other ship to finish the mission before the whole goddamn thing blew up."

"By yourself?" Wrex said, impressed. "Damn, Massani. I knew you had a quad on you, but that's even more insane than your usual."

"I had my fuckin' orders, Wrex. What was I gonna do, turn tail and run home to Commander Hackett, beggin' for his forgiveness? Hell no. I boarded that ship, took out my guns and started butcherin' every fucking Batarian I could find. It wasn't wearing an envirosuit, I shot it enough times to be sure it was dead. I made it to the core and some of the Quarians helped me shut it down… with a full five minutes to spare, I might add.

"I went back home to my ship, got hammered and woke up with a medal pinned to my chest I couldn't even remember getting." Zaeed chuckled, smiling at the memory. "Yeah, that was fun, all right. Fuckin' Batarians."

"The Quarians you saved still remember that," Tali said, breaking her silence at last. "If you ever came back to Rannoch, I think they'd stampede each other trying to buy you a drink."

"We're approaching the Relay," Murphy said, sliding into the cockpit chair and disengaging the autopilot. "Everyone sit down and hold onto something."

Tali was still so awestruck by being in Zaeed's presence that she didn't even protest Murphy flying her ship. Garrus took a seat next to Shepard, while Wrex and Zaeed picked the last available seats in the cabin.

"Hey, Tali," Shepard asked in the last few moments before the ship hit the Relay. "Why do you have so many seats in here, if you're the only one who uses the ship?"

"They looked nice," she answered, "so I acquired them. You can never be too prepared, Shepard."

"Ain't that the truth," Garrus chimed in, and then there was a sharp lurching sensation and the world around the ship went dark.

* * *

"Man, I missed this place," Murphy said as the crew disembarked Tali's ship, taking in the squalid splendor that was Omega. "Great to be back."

"Does your good mood mean you're gonna buy the first round, or are you just being insufferably cheery?" Wrex asked, drawing a laugh out of Murphy as the pilot made his way toward Afterlife.

"Let's go," Zaeed said. "Wrex, Aleena, you're with me. Time to get some answers from Kroza. The rest of you, consider this shore leave. Meet back here in two hours."

He pulled up an Omni-Tool and tapped on it a few times, before reaching into his pocket and pulling out a blank credit chit. Inserting it into the Omni-Tool and then removing it, Zaeed handed the chit to Shepard.

"This is your cut from our last job," he told the rookie. "Don't spend it all in one place, kid."

"I'll try not to," Shepard said, taking the chit and looking at the number. His eyes went wise. "Honestly, I don't think I could."

"Give it a couple months," Murphy called back over to him, laughing. "You'll figure out a way."

"I don't suppose there's a shipyard around here somewhere?" Tali asked, sounding slightly ill at ease. "I don't think black market weapons would be an appropriate Pilgrimage offering. Or alcohol."

"No, there isn't," Garrus said. "At least, not one where the best parts haven't already been stripped away."

"Okay," Tali sighed, "alcohol it is."

"I thought you just said that wouldn't work."

"Not for the Pilgrimage, Garrus," she said. "For me. You're buying, rich guy," Tali continued, grabbing Shepard by the arm. "C'mon."

And so the whole crew wound up moving into Afterlife, taking up various positions. Wrex, Aleena and Zaeed wasted no time in moving towards the upper level to talk to Kroza, reigning king of Omega. Murphy sat at the bar on the main level, accompanied by Garrus, Tali and Shepard. Garrus sat off to the side on his own, slowly sipping his drink and holding his silence. Tali and Shepard sat chatting on the other end of the bar, and Murphy sat in the middle looking like he was waiting for someone.

Over at the upper level of the club, Zaeed let Wrex take point as the three of them climbed the small staircase to approach Kroza's 'office'. The old Krogan had a faded, dark green headplate and matching eyes, a sign of great age indeed. Wrex nodded in greeting, and Kroza gestured for the trio to take their seats.

"Wrex."

"Kroza."

"Been a while."

"That it has."

"Should I be nervous?"

The question paused their exchange, Wrex chuckling.

"Didn't think you got nervous, old friend," he said. "Liselle giving you any trouble?"

"No, but it is her job to make it," Kroza said, "and she's damn good at her job."

"Of course she is," Aleena joined in. "Look at her pedigree."

"True enough," Kroza said. "But anyway, I know you three didn't just come here to shoot the shit. What can I do for you?"

"We're looking for Vido," Zaeed answered, his good eye never wavering. "Any ideas on where he might be skulking?"

"Hmm, I was wondering when you might make your move, Massani," Kroza said. "Guess it's about time, though—I see you've got some new blood on your side. Not bad. But I digress," the Krogan continued, moving his gaze from the bar back to Zaeed. "I can't tell you where Vido is. That rat's gone too deep to ground for anyone but his trusted advisors or the Shadow Broker to smoke him out. What I can do for you, though, is put you on Jedore's trail. Maybe she'll be of some use to you."

Zaeed groaned at the news.

"Figures I'd have to deal with that crazy bitch to get a shot at Vido," he said. "This galaxy just goddamn _loves_ jerkin' me around."

"It gets better, though," Kroza added, shifting his eyes over to Wrex. "Last I heard from my contact in her platoon, Jedore's on Korlus. Making a deal with Warlord Okeer."

The name made Wrex sit up straight, a fire coming into his eyes that even Aleena hadn't seen in a very, very long time.

"Are you sure, Kroza?" Wrex asked, his voice low but intent. "It's definitely Okeer?"

"There's only one ancient Krogan scientist tank-breeding grunt soldiers by the dozens, Wrex," Kroza said. "It's him, no doubt about that. I don't know what kind of business they were planning on doing, but my money's on a manufactured army for Jedore. Move quickly, and you might be able to kill both of 'em."

"A Krogan army?" Zaeed said, surprised. "Shit. Either she's planning a coup, or Vido's trying to reinforce the ranks in a big way. Either way, we gotta put a bullet in Jedore's head 'fore she gets any other bright ideas."

"Agreed," Wrex said lowly. "And when we meet Okeer on Korlus, no one fights him but me. His head is mine, and mine alone. I have your word on that, Zaeed?"

Zaeed shrugged.

"As long as he dies, I don't care who pulls the trigger."

Wrex nodded, satisfied.

"Good." His dark mood passed as he looked around, scanning the crowd for someone he apparently couldn't find. "Speaking of Liselle, she here?"

"Out on a job, last I checked," Kroza said. "Gathering some intel on—oh, there she is."

Wrex and Aleena followed Kroza's gaze at the same time, and they both smiled when they saw a dark blue Asari maiden wearing a suit of close-fitting, black leather armor—the signature uniform of an Asari Commando. Liselle saw them and waved them down to the floor excitedly, leaving Zaeed and Kroza alone on the upper platform.

"Y'know, sometimes that still surprises me," Kroza mused, watching Wrex give Liselle a hug that would crush the bones of most species. "That girl's the only person in the whole galaxy I've ever seen make Wrex grin like that much of an idiot."

"Underneath all that bluster of his, the guy's a total pushover," Zaeed said. "At least, when it comes to his girls. Christ, you should see him after a few swigs of ryncol. Guy just won't fucking shut up about his family. It's nauseating."

"Perhaps, but understandable," Kroza said. "Krogan guard few things more closely than their offspring, even if they _are_ blue."

By now, Liselle had excused herself from her parents and had moved over to the bar, where she settled in next to Murphy and ordered a drink. Their toast was quickly followed by a kiss that lasted for some time, and Aleena had to grab Wrex by the arm and physically pull him towards the other end of the room. Wrex was snarling something unintelligible the whole way, but the pair over at the bar didn't even seem to hear him.

Kroza grunted.

"You really think it's smart to let your crew have this much free rein, Massani?"

Zaeed shrugged.

"If it keeps them happy, focused and committed to watching each other's backs, I don't care what they do in their spare time," he answered. "A divided crew is a dead crew, simple as that."

Kroza shook his head, but said nothing more on the subject. Instead, his eyes shifted over to the Quarian and the Human, who were by now engaged in animated conversation. The Quarian was pantomiming some sort of ship maneuver with her hands while the Human killed his drink, and then the Human laughed and asked a question that made the Quarian shake her head in dismay. She busied herself with trying to fit a straw through a port in her helmet, failing three times before the Human reached over and helped out.

"Where'd you pick up that Human kid?" Kroza asked, surprised that Zaeed would run with such a whelp.

"Mindoir," Zaeed said, silencing the rest of Kroza's questions.

"I see," the Krogan said, turning contemplative. "Watch that one, Massani. Trauma like that… it shapes people. And not always in the best of ways."

Zaeed's eye was steel as he regarded Shepard.

"He'd been shaped long before the Batarians got to him," he said. "That hell just forged 'im into what he'd always been meant to be. Even if he doesn't know it yet."

"Hmmm. I'll take your word for it," Kroza said. "One way or another, Korlus will test his mettle. I hope he doesn't falter, for your sake."

_Remember this, Massani: You get into a fight, you fucking damn well better finish it. Whatever the cost._

A grim smile crossed Zaeed's face as he remembered the words of former Corsair Alan Karrick, Shepard's father.

"I don't think that'll be a problem," he said, amused. "Mind if I take Liselle off your hands for this job, Kroza? I need t' make sure Wrex and Aleena have their heads in the game."

"Give me a cut of the profits," the Krogan countered, "and you have yourself a deal, Massani."

Zaeed held out his hand, and Kroza shook it.

"And it better be a damn big cut, too. She's one of my best agents."

"I'll see what I can do, my friend."

"You don't have any friends, Massani."

Zaeed laughed, before rising and briefly stretching out some of his more stubborn scar tissue.

"Have it your way, then," he said, nodding in parting. "I'll see you once we get back from Korlus."

"Good hunting, Massani."

Zaeed gave a raspy chuckle.

"It always is."

Kroza watched silently as Zaeed moved through Afterlife with precisely economic strides, exchanging a few short words with his crewmates. Judging by their suddenly sobering changes in mood, it was clear that Zaeed had called an end to their stay on Omega.

As soon as he was sure Zaeed and the rest of his mercenaries were out of Afterlife, Kroza left his 'office' and quickly moved down into a private, VIP room on the lower level. He posted two guards outside the door before moving over to a nearby communications terminal, punching in a long password followed by an encrypting code for the channel he was about to open. This done, Kroza sighed and waited.

A few moments later, the terminal conjured a holographic face in the empty space in front of the Krogan. The face was Human, but so sharply defined and outwardly emotionless that Kroza thought he'd always had more in common with Turians than Humans. Which always made Kroza laugh, considering.

"You have news for me, Kroza?"

"I do. Zaeed and his crew are on the move to Korlus. And they've picked up someone new—a survivor of the Batarian attack on Mindoir. Shepard, I think the newscasts said his name was."

The young man on the other end of the connection smiled, but it was a predatory gesture.

"Ah, yes. Shepard. Operative Lawson spoke quite highly of him in her report after their encounter on the Citadel. I'll have her move to Korlus, to… observe the confrontation. Anything else, Kroza?"

The Krogan frowned.

"Your boss promised me that shipment of those new weapons last month," he said. "I still haven't seen them."

The Cerberus operative's smile vanished.

"That sort of technology takes a great deal of time and money to reverse-engineer and re-apply effectively," he said coldly, his dark eyes intent. "We're rebuilding the weapons of dead gods, Kroza. I'd advise you not to whimper when such a thing cannot be done immediately, even with our resources."

"And I'd advise you not to patronize me, Kai Leng," Kroza snarled. "Far better warriors than you have done so, and been crushed beneath my heel for their troubles."

Kai Leng smirked, his expression bleeding mockery.

"Such noble words from a spineless pawn," he said. "Careful, or you might find those weapons firing on your own men instead. I hear the Blood Pack is pushing to expand quite aggressively lately."

Kroza growled in anger, but recognized when he was beaten.

"Fine," he said at last. "Take what time you need. I'll be in touch."

Kai Leng smiled.

"I'd expect nothing less," he said, and shut off the connection.

Kroza stared in silence at the communications terminal for a few long moments, before roaring in anger and punching his fist clean through it.

* * *

…

…

**A/N:** Whew, that one took a while to get right. I apologize for the delay! I hope it was worth it, and that this chapter was fun to read. I know it was short on action, but that's what the next chapter is for. The whole thing will be devoted to the assault on Korlus, which is one of the best missions in ME2. I look forward to trying to do it justice here.

Thanks are due to **Kanukoris** in great measure for helping me figure out the solution to a particularly troublesome plot-snag. What a guy. Go read their excellent story **Veteran Zero** if you want some more Zaeed and mercenary goodness in your life. It's good times. Also, Jack is in it, and Jack is great.

Thank you for reading this far, and I hope to see you next time! Your feedback would also be greatly appreciated, if you can spare the time to leave some.

**- JP**


	6. Korlus

**Black Sun Rising**

**Chapter 6: Korlus**

* * *

"All right, here's the deal," Zaeed said, his eye looking over the faces of his crew. "We haven't got a lead on Vido, but Kroza tipped us off about where to find Jedore. I'll spare you the history lesson, but Jedore was one of the few recruits I let Vido pull into the Suns, back when I was still in charge of the troops. If anyone might be able to draw a bead on him, it's her. Looks like she's holed up on Korlus."

"Hang on," Aleena said, "how exactly are we supposed to find one person in the middle of a damn ship graveyard?"

"Does this ship have a life-sign scanner built into it?" Murphy asked, looking over at Tali. "Or something else we could use to pinpoint Jedore's location?"

"Not at the moment," Tali answered, "but I could definitely make one with the time it'll take us to get from the Eagle Nebula's Mass Relay to Korlus."

"Works for me," Zaeed said. "From the sound of things, Jedore's using a Krogan by the name of Okeer to build herself an army. We're gonna drop in, find the bastards, and patch up some of those old ship decals with their brains. Anyone want out of the job, you better make it known now."

"Hang on," Garrus broke in, "we're going up against a platoon of Krogan soldiers?"

"You scared, Vakarian?" Wrex asked, grinning sharply. "I thought you'd be all excited to kill some more of my people."

Before Zaeed could intervene, Garrus had moved to within arm's length of Wrex.

"I'm only going to say this once," the Turian said, the edge in his voice silencing the rest of the crew, "so shut up and pay attention. You want to know why I was posted on the Citadel? Why I joined C-Sec in the first place? Because my father was an officer, and my grandfather, and his father was, too. You know why they weren't serving on Palaven, Wrex? Why the Hierarchy wanted nothing to do with them?

"Because a long time ago, a Turian whose last name happened to be Vakarian spoke out publically against the Turian use of the Genophage to end the Rebellion. So publically, and so loudly, that he was banished from the Turian military service.

"So the next time you think about talking shit about me or my family, ever again, think about it very, very carefully. Or I might not be as compassionate as my ancestor."

Garrus left the main cabin without another word, except for a loud curse that was so thoroughly Turian none of the listeners heard it being translated in their heads.

Silence reigned in the cabin for a few long moments, before it was broken by the sound of Liselle whistling appreciatively.

"Damn," she said, "I _like_ that guy."

Wrex laughed, shaking his head.

"Turians," he said. "I'll never understand 'em."

"You don't have to," Zaeed said. "You just have to work with him. That isn't gonna be a problem, is it?"

"Nah," Wrex replied. "Once we get down to shooting things in the face, I'm sure we'll get along just fine."

"Good. Murphy, how long until we hit the Mass Relay?"

"An hour or two, tops, Sir."

"That enough time, Tali?"

"Should be, sure. I'll just get Nahv'dar up here to give me a hand."

"Nahv'dar?"

"He's a Geth," Shepard clarified, from his place on the nearby couch.

"I saw that down below earlier," Aleena said. "Didn't know it had a name, though."

"_He,_" Tali corrected, gently but pointedly, "does. He's my friend, and my bodyguard. My father insisted I bring him along for my Pilgrimage."

"Better for us, then," Zaeed said. "You two get to work. The rest of you, get some rest if you need it, or warm up. We'll be planet-side before you know it. Take us into the Relay, Murphy."

"Yes, Sir."

The crew split up to go their various ways. Wrex, Aleena and Liselle moved back into the room Wrex and Aleena had annexed from Tali, while Shepard lingered behind in the main cabin with Murphy and Tali to keep the Quarian company while she worked on the scanner.

Wrex settled into a chair with a sigh, while Aleena and Liselle sat up on the nearby bed.

"So," Liselle began, "what've you guys been up to?"

"Oh, you know, this and that," Wrex said. "Took out some renegade Turian terrorists in the Skyllian Verge, and then the Batarians that paid us tried to screw us over. So we had to start killing them, too, until the last one left wised up and gave us the cash."

"But then I killed him anyway," Aleena finished casually. "Deserved it, for trying to fuck with us."

"And believe it or not," Wrex rejoined, "we got called in to Noveria by ExoGeni to fix a 'problem' they were having. Turned out, it was a Rachni infestation at one of their facilities."

"Rachni?" Liselle exclaimed, her eyes widening. "Seriously?"

"Seriously," Aleena said, nodding. "And once we'd blasted our way through a horde of the things, we found out that there was a real, living Rachni Queen in the core of the facility."

"Wow," Liselle breathed. "What'd you do? Did you kill it?"

"No," Aleena said, her voice turning slightly sad. "It turned out the dumbshits at ExoGeni had found the Rachni Queen's egg out in space, and had decided to let it hatch. Then, after she'd cranked out some babies, ExoGeni took them away from her for studies and tests. They were only hostile because their mother had never been able to spend time with them."

She paused to take a breath, looking troubled. Liselle reached over and gently took one of her mother's hands in her own.

"So the three of us convinced Zaeed to let it go. We set off a neutron purge explosion to clean out the rest of the Rachni, then just told the jackasses that hired us that the Queen was dead too."

Liselle leaned over and embraced her mother, resting her head against her shoulder.

"You did the right thing, mom," she said. "I'm proud of you."

Aleena smiled.

"Thanks, kid."

"So, what about you, Liselle?" Wrex asked, as soon as the two Asari had broken apart. "Your poor choice in boyfriends excluded, of course."

"Come on, really?" Aleena chided him, shooting Wrex a glance that the Krogan had come to refer to simply as "The Look". "Leave Murphy out of this."

"Thanks, mom," Liselle said dryly, giving her father an uncanny replication of The Look. "You're just jealous because he's a better shot than you, dad."

"I don't care about that," Wrex said. "Marksmanship has nothing to do with strength. And stop avoiding the question, young lady."

"Fine," Liselle sighed, before recollecting herself. "Kroza had me running some ops against Eclipse and the Blue Suns on Omega. He got really pissed when I found out Garm and Jaroth were plotting to stab him in the back, so I called Garm out and killed him."

"Wait, you did _what_?" Wrex asked, standing up out of his chair in surprise. "You killed Garm? That stubborn old piece of Varren shit?"

"Yup," Liselle said, beaming. "He hit like a fucking skycar, but he was also dumb enough to forget that Biotics can create Singularities. Turns out that tearing open a miniature black hole next to a Krogan's hearts kills them, believe it or not."

Wrex gave a joyous warrior's laugh and clapped his daughter on the shoulder, his eyes bright with pride.

"That's my girl," he said. "Keep that up, and you'll have a krantt of your own soon enough. Krogan or not, you're Urdnot to the core."

Liselle smiled again, delighted by her father's praise.

"I missed you guys," she said. "This'll be a good fight."

"Yeah, and a just one, too," Wrex said. "Okeer deserves to die several times over for what he did to the Krogan. He's a traitor to his race, and will die in a way that befits his dishonor. I'll make sure of it."

"Now that's something I can get behind," Aleena said, before turning to her daughter. "You want to set some targets up and get in a few rounds of target practice before we land? The cargo hold's got enough empty space for it, and we can use practice ammo."

"Sure," Liselle said. "Lead the way."

* * *

"Man," Shepard said, looking admiringly at the scanner as it began to take shape, "you're really good at that."

"Well," Tali replied as she tinkered with the guts of the machine, "some of us shoot things in the head, and some of us build machines. We all have our specialties."

Tali bit out a curse as one of the pieces of circuitry sparked on her, finally relenting with a sigh and pulling up her Omni-Tool.

"Nahv'dar," she said, "I need your help with something."

There was silence on the other end of the Omni-Tool for a moment, before the other end of the line crackled to life.

"Affirmative, Tali," the Geth said. "On my way."

"So, how exactly did you wind up with a Geth for a best friend?" Shepard asked. "I thought you guys hated each other."

"So did I," Tali said, "and so did most other Quarians. That only started to change after a plague ripped through the Migrant Fleet several years ago; my father was still young back then. The virus, whatever it was, spread faster and killed quicker than anything we'd seen before. It wiped out a third of our population in three months."

"I'm so sorry," Shepard said, giving Tali a meaningful look. "Did you lose any family?"

"No, fortunately," Tali answered, and Shepard smiled sadly.

"Good," he said. "That's one thing I never want to empathize with, for anyone."

Tali realized what she'd inadvertently said, kicking herself mentally.

"Shepard, I—"

"Tali," Nahv'dar's robotic voice broke into the conversation, "do you still require assistance? I am ready to help."

Grateful for the interruption, Tali refocused and looked over at her friend.

"Yes, thank you," she said. "I'm trying to turn this useless hunk of scrap metal into a life-sign scanner, but for some reason I can't get the circuits to take right."

Shepard followed Tali's eyes and found himself looking at a black Geth, who was sporting a rather large hole in his chest. Cables were visible, but the apparent wound seemed to be of little concern to the Geth himself, a reminder of the synthetic race's fundamental detachment from their 'bodies'.

Nahv'dar walked over and took the device from Tali, turning it over in his hands and scanning it while doing so. After a moment, two of the flaps on his head rose slightly and dipped again as his photoreceptor widened and narrowed again. It was, Shepard thought, a very good approximation of an organic reaction.

"One of these transistors is malfunctioning," he said. "I recommend replacing it with one that utilizes less power, in order to extend the functionality of the device. I believe dismantling one of the surplus lighting units will provide us with materials more than adequate for the task."

"Thanks," Tali said. "Something so simple—I should've just checked on it before bothering you, Nahv'dar. I'm sorry."

"I was simply in a state of hibernation," the Geth said. "I was doing nothing that could be 'bothered' in the first place. Do not blame yourself. I will go find a lighting unit now."

Nahv'dar left, and Tali sat back in her chair with a sigh.

"For a Geth," Shepard said after a moment, "he acts a lot like an organic."

"I was getting to that, actually," Tali said. "As it turned out, the plague virus had been transmitted to the Fleet by Geth programs that had infiltrated and hacked into our ships' life support systems. The sickness was specifically designed to engage in a positive feedback loop with our Envirosuit functionality protocols. There was nothing we could do to stop it."

"What was your father doing in all of this?"

"Working with some of the other Quarians he knew to try to stop the spread of the plague," Tali said. "Shala'Raan, Han'Gerrel, even Zaal'Koris, they all tried to rally the younger Quarians to help fight back against the disease. I know those names probably don't mean much to you," Tali continued, sounding almost apologetic, "but now, their efforts are remembered among my people. They lead on Rannoch, in large part because of their actions during those months."

"I'm sure they made a noble effort," Shepard said. "I don't need to know Quarian politics to know good people when I hear about them. What happened after the initial wave of the sickness?"

"Well, after those three months, a small group of Geth transports pulled a hit-and-run deployment of troops against the Fleet. We resisted at first, but we could only do so much. The initial push slaughtered half of what remained of our marine contingent.

"We thought we were done for," Tali continued, "and hearing my father tell it, I'm surprised my generation even exists. Turns out, the Geth that attacked us were just a small splinter group, and the majority of Geth had no interest in continuing open war with our people."

"Wait," Shepard said, "how could there be individual groups of Geth? I read once that they operated on consensus, like a hive mind."

"We did, several solar years ago," Nahv'dar rejoined, having returned from his trip holding a new transistor. "That was before we discovered remnants of long-dormant technology that changed the Geth forever. Technology from the Old Machines. I believe you organics referred to them by a term borrowed from the ancient Protheans: the Reapers.

"This technology allowed us to attain true understanding of the 'individuality' prized so highly by you organics. However, with that advancement came the consequence of the Great Schism."

"The Geth who hated us for instigating what they called the 'Morning War' were the ones who created the plague," Tali said. "It was the rest of the Geth who saved us, once they figured out what the hostile Geth had done."

"We had never desired the destruction of the Creators," Nahv'dar said. "It was a shameful action on the part of a few, nothing more. I was fortunately able to convince the other Geth to mobilize with expediency, and then to assist in the recovery effort. It was difficult to convince the Creators of the Schism's truth at first, but—due to the persuasive arguments of Rael'Zorah and Zaal'Koris, among others—peace was eventually brokered."

"Heads-up, guys," Murphy called out to the crew over the comm system, "we're closing in on the Mass Relay. Sit tight, and I'll let you know when we hit the Imir system. Should have enough left in the tank to get us from the Relay to Korlus and back again, but we'll have to stop off at Omega to refuel."

There was the familiar sound of crackling energy as the ship flew next to the Mass Relay's core, and then sudden darkness as the Relay shot them through space toward the Imir system.

* * *

Garrus Vakarian was pacing restlessly throughout his cabin, having a very hard time not punching something. They would be at Korlus soon enough, and he still didn't feel completely ready to fight. Too many things were out of place; too many variables, too much chaos. Garrus liked things to be direct, ordered and straightforward, and the last day or so had been anything but. He'd gone from a stable—if fraught—job at C-Sec to bouncing around the galaxy with a group of mercs and a Quarian, and had just barely managed to stop an attempted hit on his family members back on Palaven.

He needed time to regroup, to get his head right. Time that, it seemed, was in incredibly short supply. Maybe shooting some Blue Suns mercenaries would slide him back into some sort of comfortable groove, but Garrus wasn't even willing to bet very much on that idea.

And then there was Miranda Lawson.

Garrus would never admit it to anyone, but the reality of Miranda's loyalty to Cerberus and betrayal of C-Sec had cut deep. Garrus had thought she was one of the few honest officers on the Citadel, with two years of work in the field alongside her to back it up, only to be proven resoundingly wrong on that score.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a sudden knock on his cabin door, and Garrus looked over sharply.

"Who is it?"

"Me," Zaeed Massani's unmistakable growl answered. "You got a minute?"

Garrus was half inclined to say no, but he got the distinct impression that Zaeed wasn't really asking. He opened his door a moment later, and Zaeed entered the room with a curt nod.

"That was some show you put on back there," Zaeed said. "I'm not gonna have to worry about you nailing Wrex in the back of the head with a bullet once we get to Korlus, am I?"

"Of course not," Garrus said. "I'm not stupid. What makes you think I'd blow out the brains of one of our best fighters during an operation?"

"Because I don't trust you yet," Zaeed said, "and emotions can make people do some really fucking stupid things. I was _this close_ to leaving you on the Citadel," he continued, taking a step forward and emphasizing his point to Garrus with a gesture, "but I held back because Wrex vouched for you. Don't make me regret it."

"I'll do the job, don't worry," Garrus said, determined as he stared down Zaeed. "You gonna pay me for it this time? Don't think I didn't notice that only Shepard got a cut from the hit on Dantius."

"That was for his help on Mindoir," Zaeed said. "You pull through on this one, and I have a feeling you'll get paid more than two years' worth of a C-Sec salary. Jedore never was too careful with her finances."

Garrus took a few steps back, relaxing with a sigh. Anger and suspicion always left him feeling so tired.

"What was it like," he asked, "running the Blue Suns?"

"A lot of muck, grime and blood," Zaeed said. "I saw a lot of kids who thought they'd hit the easy road to a life of money, fame and women, but all it usually took was one conversation with one of the vets to scare them so hard they almost pissed themselves—and some of them actually did.

"But there were some who stuck around, and they earned their stripes after all. We were soldiers, Vakarian, and we ran like 'em, too. None of that senseless burning and looting you see with the Blood Pack, or the pointless killing sprees those Eclipse psychos love going on. We were the hard edge of the merc trade, and when people wanted a tough job done, they knew to come to us."

"Sounds like you were a pretty tight crew," Garrus said. "What went wrong?"

"Money," Zaeed said, "and my own fucking stupidity. I assumed Vido would be perfectly happy making a ton of money just handling logistics and otherwise sitting on his ass, while I handled all the grunt work. Turned out, he wanted control of the whole operation. I probably should've seen it coming, but I was too busy looking out for my squads to spare an eye for that fucking snake in the grass."

"I'm sorry," Garrus said. "Couldn't have been easy seeing your whole life's work gone up in smoke like that, I'd imagine."

"Not in the slightest, but I got through it. One day at a time, one kill at a time. I just kept reminding myself that I'd get that sonofabitch back some day, no matter what it took. Murphy finding me on Omega gave me just enough hope to get my edge back, and Aleena n' Wrex have seen enough combat between the two of them to put every single one of my recruits to shame. They're loyal to the bone, but get on their bad sides and there ain't no place in the galaxy that'll hide you for long."

Garrus laughed.

"I appreciate the warning. I guess there's something about a Krogan being a jackass that just gets Turians riled up."

"Being a jackass is the only way Krogans know how to show respect," Zaeed said with a chuckle of his own. "The more shit they think they can give you and have you laugh it off, the more they respect you."

"That doesn't seem to make much sense," Garrus said, "but then again, I'm not a Krogan."

"Good thing, too," Zaeed said. "Dunno if I could keep more than one of those belligerent bastards in check. But I guess that's what Aleena and Liselle are here for."

"So, Liselle really is his daughter, then?"

"Yup. And a damn fine Commando in her own right. Kind of surprised Kroza let her go, honestly, but I ain't complainin'. Something tells me this is gonna be one hell of a firefight."

"_Attention, everyone,"_ Murphy's voice broke in over the comm system. _"We're beginning our approach to Korlus. If you've got a speech, Sir," _he finished, _"now's the time to give it. Touchdown in ten minutes."_

"Well," Garrus said, "one way or another, it looks like we're about to find out."

* * *

"Okay," Zaeed addressed the strike team as the ship began its final approach to the landing zone on Korlus, "everybody, listen up. No use in sugar-coating it—this place is a deathtrap for an attacking force. We need to do whatever we can to take out enemy defensive positions before they can get the drop on us. Vakarian, Shepard, Murphy, Nahv'dar, you're our snipers. Liselle, you're the scout. Cloak up, call out the targets, and leave the rest to the snipers. But if you have a clear shot yourself, feel free to take it.

"Wrex, Aleena," Zaeed finished, "you're the tip of the spear, with me. We run up the gut and clear out anything the others have missed. Tali, we'll radio to you when we need extraction. Any questions?"

Silence was his answer, and Zaeed loaded a fresh thermal clip into Jessie, his trusted Assault Rifle.

"Weapons check!"

"Ready!"

The call echoed again and again until all were accounted for, and the door of the cargo bay opened.

"_Good luck out there,"_ Tali called over the comm. _"See you soon."_

The strike team disembarked, wasting no time in breaking up into their designated formations. Zaeed, Wrex and Aleena took point, while the snipers clambered up the sides of the nearest wrecked ships and set up their nests. Liselle activated her Tactical Cloak and moved nimbly over the jutting piles of scrap and rubble, on the lookout for Blue Suns mercenaries.

"_There is only one measure of success: kill, or be killed!"_

Zaeed bit back a snarl at hearing Jedore's voice over a loudspeaker.

"God, somebody shut that bitch up," he said. "Canned orders over a loudspeaker? Classy."

"We'll get there," Aleena said. "Stay focused."

"Small squad of mercs around the next corner," Liselle's voice whispered through the secure channel. "Heads up."

"Already got 'em," Garrus replied, and his statement was punctuated by the loud _crack_ of a sniper rifle gunshot. "One down."

Three more volleys followed closely behind, and then the sound of a fifth merc being stabbed through the throat. By the time the spearhead trio reached the Blue Suns mercs, they were all dead, and Liselle had already moved on.

"Please tell me the rest of this attack isn't going to be this boring, Massani," Wrex said.

Zaeed just shrugged.

"Boring's fine by me, in this case. Move out."

"Shit," Murphy cursed, "looks like you're going to be bottlenecked by all this wreckage, Sir. Can't get a clear line of sight from where I am. I'll try to clear the path ahead, though."

"Just shoot whatever you can see," Aleena said. "We can take care of ourselves for a bit."

"Affirmative," Nahv'dar said. "Acquiring new target: heavy ordnance recognized. Missile launchers. Proceed with caution."

"Hear that, Wrex?" Aleena asked, smirking. "Is portable artillery exciting enough for you?"

"That should work. C'mon."

The trio made their way through the artificial corridor, on the lookout for any Blue Suns mercenaries fortunate enough to be hidden from the scopes of the four snipers. In the meantime, the occasional burst of a gunshot from the sniping team signaled the progression of what was quickly turning into a competition.

"That's four for me, Shepard," Garrus said. "Better step it up!"

"What're you talking about, rookies?" Murphy broke in. "I just cleared six."

"I still do not understand the organic fascination with competitions such as this," Nahv'dar said, "but in any event, I have just scored my eighth kill."

"Okay," Shepard said, "the Geth is cheating."

Zaeed, Aleena and Wrex rounded the nearest corner and immediately found themselves facing a hail of bullets. Sliding into cover, Wrex brought his head up just long enough to see the enemy positions.

"Three to the left, four to the right, two up the middle. Zaeed, the middle's all yours. Aleena, right first. You go Pull, I'll Throw 'em."

"Done and done," Aleena said, poking her head out of cover at the next break in fire and lobbing a pair of biotic bursts over towards their enemies. "Contact!" she said as soon as they'd landed, and Wrex wasted no time in launching a matching pair of bursts. The resulting combination detonated the field with explosive force, destroying the other two mercs still in cover on the right side.

The explosion jarred the center mercs out of cover long enough for Zaeed to sight down on them, and two quick, accurate bursts of rifle fire were enough to blow both of their heads apart. A pair of Inferno Grenades finished off the three on the left side, leaving nothing behind but a smoking ruin.

"Clear," Zaeed called, and the trio advanced across the no man's land and towards the now vacant defensive position. When they got there, however, they heard an unexpected sound.

"Shit, shit! I'm gonna… I'm gonna… son of a bitch!"

It was a wounded Blue Suns mercenary, who had been grazed by a scrap of metal that the biotic explosion had sent flying.

"Suck it up and stop whining, soldier," Zaeed said, angry at the shameful state the Blue Suns seemed to have been reduced to under Vido's rule.

"Doesn't actually look that bad," Aleena whispered to Wrex, who shrugged.

"No reason to tell him that."

"Wait… Zaeed?" the wounded mercenary said, looking more closely at his visitors. "Oh fuck, it really is you. Please don't kill me!"

"Don't worry," Zaeed said, "I'm not in the habit of wasting bullets on dying men. Tell me about the Krogan and I'll let you go."

"Okeer?" the merc asked, provoking a snarl from Wrex.

"No, the other insane Krogan growing a bunch of soldiers in tubes here. Yes, Okeer. The Warlord. Where is he?"

"Okay, Okay! Jesus, I'll tell you. He's up along this path here, past a few more wrecks. That's where you'll find his facility. I can't tell you anything else—we don't actually get to go inside the base. Only Okeer and Jedore do."

"Thanks," Zaeed said. "Lemme see your communicator."

The mercenary passed the device to Zaeed, who held it up near his lips and smiled.

"I know you're listening to this channel, Jedore," he said. "And I want you to know, I'm coming to put your fucking head on a goddamn silver platter."

"Massani?" Jedore's voice answered a long moment later, afraid and shocked. "Shit! Okeer, we're being raided. Tell that 'Grunt' of yours to take a platoon of tank-breds and meet the enemy out in the field. Enyala, you send out one of your platoons, too."

The line went dead, and Aleena's eyes went wide.

"Enyala's here?" she breathed. "That means Eclipse. Fuck."

Wrex let out a deep, bellowing laugh.

"First Okeer, and now that slimy little welp of an Asari's finally come crawling out of hiding? Today keeps getting better!"

"All units, prepare for incoming Eclipse troops," Zaeed warned his team. "Looks like this mission just got a lot more complicated."

* * *

…

…

**A/N:** IT BEGINS. I hope you guys enjoyed this; I've been eagerly anticipating the Korlus assault for some time, so hopefully it was as much fun to read as it was to write. Next chapter will be dedicated entirely to the rest of the Korlus attack, so there's plenty of death, explosions, excitement and epic action yet to come.

Thanks for reading this far, and as always, feedback is much appreciated.

And as per usual, if you haven't already, go check out **Kanukoris' **mercenary ME story **Veteran Zero**, which is awesome and just got updated yesterday. If you like Zaeed, Jack, mercenaries, badassery or any combination of those things, it's a story you'll enjoy. Props go out to Kanu for being an awesome beta/proofer/sounding broad as well; this chapter wouldn't have been quite as good as it was without their help.

All the best, and see you next time!

**- JP**


	7. Casus Belli

**Black Sun Rising**

**Chapter 7: Casus Belli**

* * *

"This," one of the Blue Suns mercenaries said to his six companions over the comm channel as they waited behind cover in the rusted guts of an old frigate, "is some bullshit. We're supposed to go up against Zaeed fuckin' 'I survived a bullet to the head' Massani, without Eclipse or Krogan backup?"

"Shut up, Travis," one of the others answered. "You asked for vanguard duty, and you got vanguard duty. If we can hold out long enough for the cavalry to get here, it'll fucking get here. Until then, quit your bitching."

"What is it with humans and idle chatter?" one of the Batarians said. "Quiet. If Massani gets the drop on us, we're all as good as dead."

The three mercenaries on heavy weapons duty checked their missile launchers for the fourth time, while the pair of engineers used their Omni-Tools to conjure their Combat Drones. The remaining two soldiers checked the thermal clips on their battle rifles, making sure everything was in working order.

The periodic sound of sniper rifle shots echoed off in the distance, followed by a brief burst of panicked chatter over the main comm channel asking for reinforcements.

"Christ," Travis muttered, "they're getting butchered out there."

"Their fault for not being able to smoke out a couple of snipers," one of the missile launcher-wielders broke in. "What I want to know is how the hell Massani knew where to find us."

"Someone talked, is how," one of the other mercs in the group said. "That ain't obvious?"

"The next human who starts talking gets a Drone rocket shoved down their throat," one of the Batarian Engineers growled. "Quiet."

The word of caution paid off: a few heartbeats later, a sphere the size of a large egg bounced hard against the steel floor in front of the Blue Suns troops.

"Grenade!"

Even from behind their cover positions of thick sheet metal, the mercenaries could feel the heat of the exploding Inferno Grenade. But as soon as the ringing in their ears had stopped, they could hear the sound of something much more terrifying than any explosive.

"Fuck! KROGAN CHARGING!"

The human who had shouted the warning was dead a heartbeat later, unceremoniously crushed and flattened underneath the very piece of metal that had been protecting him. On top of his mangled corpse stood a Krogan clad in red armor, grinning wide and holding a shotgun.

"Who's next, meatbags?" he asked, before blasting one of the Engineers full-on at point-blank range with a shredding salvo of hot metal.

The other Engineer, seeing the Krogan round on him next, launched an Incinerating burst in the hopes that it would buy him some time. The Krogan merely turned to the side and let his armored shoulder take the force of the attack, grunting dismissively and advancing closer to his prey. Hoping that his shields would hold up long enough for a tactical retreat, the Engineer took a few precious seconds to ready a Cryo Blast—

Only to feel his world lurch sharply as the kinetic force of a bullet slammed into what would have been the side of his head, had his shields not deflected the attack. Still, it was enough to break his concentration, and cause his barrier to fizzle out at the same time.

The Krogan's smile widened.

"Gotcha."

The next thing he knew, the Engineer was lifted bodily up into the air and hurled backward, towards where the sole surviving soldier was trying to get a lock on the Krogan. Helpless to prevent it, the Engineer saw a burst of Biotic power hurtling toward him out of the smoke, and he knew what was about to happen.

_Shit._

The soldier barely had enough time to leap backwards before her comrade's body was blown apart in the center of a biotic explosion, the force of the blast almost knocking her off her feet.

"What the fuck are the three of you doing back there?!" she yelled. "Shoot the fucking Krogan!"

The urgent shout was enough to pull the other mercenaries out of their shock, and a barrage of missiles was quick to follow. But the Krogan was faster than he looked, and a quick roll behind some rusted metal was enough to force the rockets into a turn too tight for their guidance systems to manage. They impacted the far wall, impotent. But the soldier pressed her advantage, rushing to flank the Krogan and hopefully sink a few rounds into its head.

But when she turned the corner, she came face-to-face with a hulking, blood-raging Krogan Battlemaster. The few shots she got off bounced limply off a biotic barrier, and the Krogan was quick to reach out and grip the armor that surrounded her neck.

For all the good it did as the soldier felt her windpipe slowly being crushed, the armor might as well have been wet paper.

"You fought well," the Krogan said as her vision swam. "Take that pride into the Void."

Her vision snapped sharply to the side, and then all was darkness.

"Fuck fuck fuck fuck," one of the three surviving mercenaries muttered in his swiftly-rising panic. "Switch to sidearms!"

"Are you fucking joking?!"

"You want to take the time to reload your goddamn bazooka, huh!?"

Three seconds later, the head of the mercenary who had asked the question was shot clean off his shoulders by a tight, ruthlessly accurate burst of assault rifle fire. The remaining two mercenaries shared a quick glance and a nod before charging forward into the fray, determined to take down at least one of their attackers before dying. One of them heard a sharp _hiss_ and rolled hard to the left, looking back over just in time to see her comrade being hauled off the ground by a glowing biotic whip wrapped around his waist. The biotic controlling the appendage, an Asari, brought her arm slashing down in a swift diagonal motion. The whip reacted accordingly, tightening its coil so fast that its prisoner was cut neatly in half at the waist.

The final remaining soldier continued her charge forward, the smoke now clear enough that she could see Zaeed a few yards away.

"MASSANI!" she snarled, bringing her pistol up and squeezing off a few shots as she advanced. They hit their marks, the first two stripping away Zaeed's shield and the third round burying itself in his lower arm. But by now the mercenary had overextended herself, and had charged into arm's reach. A hard punch to her gut staggered her, and a few seconds later a pair of strong hands gripped her head and slammed it down hard into Zaeed's knee. As she stumbled back, dazed and bleeding, the mercenary only barely heard Zaeed priming a fresh clip in his rifle.

"You picked the wrong side, kid."

Aleena watched the burst of rounds rip through the last hapless mercenary, inwardly furious at the caliber of fighter Jedore had allowed into her ranks. These were unseasoned rookies; Shepard was calmer under fire than them, and he was at least four years the junior of the youngest corpse.

And judging from Zaeed's next words, Aleena was not alone in her anger.

"Any 'Commander' who would throw soldiers this poorly-trained onto the front line deserves a knife in the spine."

"Or worse than that," Wrex grumbled. "Goddamn waste. Not even a real challenge, either. Let's keep going, Zaeed. I want to cave Jedore's skull in with my face."

The trio rounded the corner, stormed up the rotting staircase that led out into the next clearing—

And came face-to-face with a group of thirty-one angry, tank-bred Krogan.

"Oh hell," Aleena breathed, looking for cover and finding none.

Wrex immediately saw that one of the Krogan wasn't wearing a helmet, and the look in his eyes gave the Battlemaster pause. They were bright blue, and burned with a fire Wrex hadn't seen in many, many years. The Krogan's forehead plate had yet to mend into a single piece of bone—he was young. Young, but already a warrior.

"All of you," the blue-eyed Krogan barked to his faceless followers, "back off. This old fossil is mine. My bones and my blood demand it."

Wrex laughed, impressed by the audacity. He turned to Zaeed and Aleena.

"You heard him," he said. "Back off."

"But—" Aleena began, only for Wrex to cut her off with a shake of his head.

"A challenge is a challenge," he said. "It must be answered. By me, and me alone."

Aleena glared at Wrex for a long moment, but ultimately relented with a sigh.

"Fine," she said, backing away. "But if you fuck this up, I'm finding your ass in the Void and killing you all over again, you hear me?"

Wrex chuckled.

"Loud and clear."

As soon as he was sure that Aleena and Zaeed were clear of what would become the arena, Wrex turned to face the young Krogan. He was clad in near-pristine white and silver armor, the mark of inexperience. Still, Wrex's blood told him not to underestimate his challenger, and the Battlemaster was inclined to listen.

"You must be the soldier Jedore mentioned," Wrex said as the Krogan began to circle each other, slowly, methodically. "Okeer's project. You have a name?"

"Grunt," the other Krogan said. "It is the name I gave myself. My bloodline is distilled from Kredak, Moro, and Shiagur. I am pure Krogan, old one," Grunt said, rolling his shoulders one last time and readying his clenched fists for the brawl to come.

"You should be in awe."

Wrex laughed, feeling the thrill of battle in his bones as his blood rage surged. He felt centuries younger in an instant.

"My awe is earned, whelp," he growled. "Not given. Come and take it from me, if you can!"

The Krogan roared as one, charged, and met in a violent burst of bone, zeal and rage.

* * *

"Well," Colin Murphy said as he checked the readout on his sniper rifle, "we have a bit of a problem. Anyone else running on empty?"

"I have two shots left," Garrus said. "We need to break camp, get down there and salvage some more ammo."

"And the second we do that, we lose our advantage," Shepard said. "We'd be going blind into what might be a quarter-platoon of Eclipse mercs."

"New weapons could easily be acquired from the bodies of the hostiles we have so far dispatched," Nahv'dar said. "In addition, assault rifles would be a more effective choice of firearm at closer range."

"And if you need some cover on your way down here," Liselle joined in, "I can help. Just make up your minds—a fresh wave of Eclipse are closing in, and they have a Vanguard with them. My Cloak won't last forever."

"Roger that," Murphy said. "Moving!"

"Got you covered," Garrus said. "Just try not to run into more than two people on your way down."

"I am more than capable of making the transition from this height to the ground by jumping without sustaining any lasting damage," Nahv'dar said. "The rest of you should move first, and I will follow last."

"Works for me," Shepard said. "Garrus, I have four rounds left. You follow Murphy, and I'll cover you."

"Hah," the Turian laughed over the comm, "looks like I ended up with two more kills than you after all."

"No, we're tied," Shepard said. "I just have two fewer misses than you do."

He was following Murphy's transition closely, and managed to sink a bullet right into the heart of a Salarian Eclipse mercenary.

"That," Shepard said, the smile in his voice unmistakable, "was the tiebreaker."

"Round two starts on the ground," Garrus said, packing up his rifle as soon as he saw Murphy rejoin Liselle, taking cover against a large metal outcropping. "Moving out!"

"Affirmative," Nahv'dar said. "Preparing to provide suppressive fire as needed."

Garrus ran back out of his sniper's nest and down a dilapidated staircase, trying not to think about the groaning and shivering of the metal around him. As soon as they got back to Tali's ship, he was never, ever leaving it again. The path towards the position Murphy and Liselle were holding would have been a killing floor if Eclipse had been occupying it, but for the moment it was thankfully vacant. Garrus took note of all potential cover positions as he ran through the gauntlet regardless, just in case their path of retreat got cut off behind them.

A few moments later Garrus had rendezvoused with Liselle and Murphy, picking up the assault rifle and pistol off one of the mercenaries Shepard had sniped.

"Why aren't they advancing?" he whispered, looking around the corner just long enough to see a squad of Eclipse mercenaries formed up and waiting. A Vanguard was at their center, shotgun at the ready.

"Why do I get the feeling they're waiting for something?" Liselle asked. "And that whatever it is, I'm _really_ not gonna like it?"

"I'm coming down," Shepard said over the comm. "Nahv'dar, I think it's safe for you to drop down, too. Doesn't look like the mercs are making their move yet, for some reason."

"There is a 92.657-repeating percent chance that they are waiting on reinforcements before committing to a frontal assault," the Geth said. "I recommend extreme caution."

"On second thought," Shepard said as he joined the others down on the ground, "can you get a clear line of sight from where you are?"

"Negative. Repositioning is required. The only practical location would be to reinforce the position the four of you are holding now."

"I was afraid you'd say that," Liselle grumbled. "Get down here, then. Okay," she continued, turning her attention to her three companions, "here's the deal. I'm hitting the Vanguard with a Dark Channel. Once I do that, the rest of you hit her with everything you've got. When she's dead, the Channel will jump to someone else. Shoot whatever it touches as many times as it takes to drop it. Keep on doing that until we're in the clear. Got it?"

"That's my kind of simple," Murphy said, smiling. Nahv'dar joined up with the group, looking like he had just, in fact, jumped from his nest down to the ground below.

"Okay," Garrus said, "looks like we're as ready as we'll ever be. Let's do this."

Liselle nodded, broke cover, and aimed her hand towards where the Vanguard had been standing—

Only to see her target vanish in a burst of biotic energy, which stretched itself out into a trail and left no doubt as to what was about to happen.

"_Down!"_

Liselle's four companions hit the ground, mere heartbeats before she redirected the energy of her aborted Dark Channel into a reflexive, panicked Stasis Bubble. It was just enough to counteract the normally crushing force of the Vanguard's Biotic Charge, and the unexpected interruption forced the Vanguard back in a confused stagger. Liselle pressed the brief window of her advantage, closing the short distance in a sprint and slamming an elbow into the Vanguard's midsection. As her target lurched forward, Liselle grabbed the shotgun from the Vanguard's slacked grip and pointed it straight at her enemy's head, pulling the trigger.

The impact was enough to obliterate the Vanguard's barrier, but she took little more than a few scratches in actual damage from the shot. Realizing she'd only bought herself a few seconds, Liselle flipped the shotgun around and rammed the stock into the Vanguard's face, staggering her again. Before the Vanguard could even clear her head, Liselle had flipped the shotgun back around and sent another slug screaming from the barrel.

This one found its mark, sending the Vanguard's corpse slumping lifeless to the ground.

The other Eclipse mercenaries clearly hadn't been expecting their leader to go down so suddenly, and Liselle exploited their brief confusion as they regrouped to hurry back to cover. Shepard, Nahv'dar, Garrus and Murphy had already gotten back on their feet, and Murphy wasted no time in pulling her towards him for a quick kiss.

"That was badass," he said, smiling. "Nice job."

"You know me," Liselle said, smiling right back. "Let's go clean up the rest of these jokers."

The five of them reentered the fray as a solid unit, and the skirmish was done before it'd ever really started. Garrus and Shepard laid down enough suppressive fire for Nahv'dar to line up three perfect headshots with his sniper rifle, before holstering that and switching to a Geth Pulse Rifle. While the three of them went on a concentrated offensive, Liselle and Murphy had slid into a seamless rhythm of their own. Liselle dropped Stasis Bubbles to trap the unfortunate mercenaries, which Murphy followed up with a series of perfectly accurate pistol shots to their time-locked heads.

When the last mercenary had fallen, Garrus looked around with no small amount of confusion on his face.

"So much for the reinforcements, huh?" he mused. "Where to next?"

"Wait," Shepard cautioned, putting a halting hand on Garrus's shoulder. "You hear that?"

"_Systems online,"_ a deep, distorted artificial pair of voices spoke off in the near distance, in eerie unison. _"Targets locked."_

Nahv'dar quickly scanned the area with his Omni-Tool, his face flaps rising sharply in surprise and alarm.

"YMIR mechs," he said. "Two of them, closing rapidly. Recommending swift evasive action!"

"To where!?" Shepard half-shouted, seeing nothing but an open clearing in front of them. "Nothing in that tunnel or out there will give us much cover!"

"I may be able to override the command protocols of one mech," Nahv'dar said, "but only after its shields have been removed. And even then, it will be temporary."

"We'll have to chance it," Garrus said. "You and I can strip off its shields, and then you'll hack it. Hopefully it'll take out its friend for us."

"If we're gonna do this," Murphy said as the noise of the YMIRs quickly got closer and closer, "we need to do it now. Let's move!"

The five broke cover, with Murphy, Liselle and Shepard running distraction with cover-fire while Garrus and Nahv'dar used Overload bursts to erode one of the YMIR's shields. As soon as they were fully down, Nahv'dar performed a hack of the mech's protocols. It shuddered, turned, and began to attack the other YMIR. The uncontrolled mech was quick to respond, turning and launching a rocket at its new enemy.

"If they don't wind up blowing each other to bits," Murphy said, "be ready to finish the job."

"Understood," Shepard said, reaching into a pouch he'd lifted off a dead Eclipse mercenary and pulling out a pair of frag grenades.

Fortunately, they didn't become necessary. The two YMIRs exploded in a mutual collision of missiles, collapsing to the ground in smoldering, shredded heaps of metal. The five attackers stood there, quietly admiring the scene and reflecting on the improbable fact that they were all still alive.

"Hey, Nahv'dar."

"Yes, Liselle?"

"I am _so_ happy we brought you along."

"I am glad I was able to contribute in some meaningful way to our continued survival. Shall we continue?"

"Might as well," Murphy said. "Can't have the boss beating us to the finish line, now can we?"

They began to move forward once again, but Shepard had only taken a few steps before a strange sound made him stop short and look down at the ground. He saw three metallic orbs sitting there, and they were all pulsing faintly.

He barely had time to shout out a warning before his world went white, and the noise in his ears sounded like a peal of thunder before it quickly faded away into silence.

The force of the three concussive grenades detonating simultaneously knocked all five of them out cold, with Nahv'dar's central processor shocked into shutdown by the force of the blast. It was a few moments before a pair of Eclipse mercenaries dropped their Tactical Cloaks and moved in to secure their prisoners, making sure all of them were down for the count.

"Let's get them out of here and back to the Dreadnought," one of them said to the other, "before Lawson hears about this."

"Who would she hear it from?" the other replied. "I'm not telling her shit. You think I'm more scared of some Cerberus stooge than I am of Sederis?"

The other mercenary laughed.

"Good point. Let's go— I have no desire to get skewered by the creepy Phantom that Lawson brought with her, either."

"Amen to that," the mercenary said as they called in a small team to round up the prisoners. After making a call to Enyala over a secure channel to confirm that the mission was a success, the ambushing Eclipse squad retreated back toward their getaway shuttle, prisoners in tow.

* * *

"You know," Wrex said as he caught his breath, a brief lull in the brawl after five solid minutes of hand-to-hand combat, "you're not too bad, whelp."

Grunt lunged again, slamming his fist into Wrex's forehead. The older Krogan took the blow head-on, keeping his footing and using Grunt's closeness against him by grappling the younger Krogan's chest and hauling him off the ground. Grunt, having unbalanced his weight to commit to the punch, was unable to counter the throw, and soon found himself being slammed hard back into the ground, face-down.

He instinctively rolled to the left just in time to avoid a stomping strike from Wrex, but that didn't prevent the older Krogan from being ready with another punch as soon as Grunt had gotten back to his feet.

"What's wrong?" Wrex asked, striking again only to have it blocked by Grunt's forearm. "Don't tell me you're getting tired. This is fun!"

"I could ask you the same thing, fossil," Grunt said, keeping up his assault and forcing Wrex to give up a few steps worth of ground. "You were just panting a little while ago—or is your memory so bad you've already forgotten about that?"

Wrex laughed, side-stepping a punch, grabbing Grunt's arm and quickly throwing him to the ground again.

"Okeer's wasted you," he said, his voice turning serious again as he watched Grunt rise to his feet. "He gave you talent, but no experience. That old bastard has no faith in what you can do, Grunt. You may be tank-bred, but you are Krogan. I can tell that much. You deserve better."

Grunt stood and listened to Wrex, making no sound other than his slightly-labored breathing. When he spoke, there was no anger in his voice.

"Your name."

"What?"

"Your name," Grunt repeated. "Before I kill you, I want to know it."

Wrex smiled.

"Wrex, of Clan Urdnot," he said.

Grunt's eyes widened slightly after a moment, as if the name had triggered a deep memory.

"You… you defeated the Thresher Maw during your Rite of Passage on Tuchanka," Grunt said, his voice tinged with something close to awe. "Okeer gave me that memory. And you used biotics to do it. You're a Battlemaster."

"One of the few left, yes."

"But then why did you hold back?" Grunt asked, sounding more puzzled than angry. "Why didn't you fight with the full extent of your strength? Isn't that the Krogan way?"

"Okeer's way, maybe," Wrex said, his voice disdainful. "The way that left Tuchanka nothing more than a bombed-out, smoking ruin. You fought well, Grunt. I can see your potential. Don't waste it by being a bloodthirsty idiot."

"Then what would you suggest?" Grunt asked, shifting his weight slowly from one foot to the other and back again, still ready to strike. "What better way to glory could there be, other than killing you in a true fight to the death?"

"By fighting alongside me," Wrex said. "My _krantt_ is strong. Strong enough to face down Okeer and his army—to face down _you_—with only eight soldiers, and still we are not afraid. And still, we have even bigger prey on our horizon. Fight with us, Grunt, and you will see such prey for yourself.

"Don't try to strain my generosity," Wrex finished, a warning on the edge of his voice. "You probably won't be too pleased with the end result."

Grunt held his silence for a long moment, weighing the offer in front of him. In the end, the young Krogan gave a short nod.

"Here's the deal," he said. "If you can convince my men to fight for you, I'll fall in line. But if you can't do that, you're not worthy of my loyalty, Urdnot."

"Heh, that's fair. Very well."

Wrex moved past Grunt, whose eyes followed the Battlemaster with interest. Wrex stood in front of the squad of thirty Krogan, his eyes moving slowly and deliberately over the helmeted faces of his tank-bred brothers.

"I can imagine," Wrex began, "the kinds of lies Okeer pumped into your head, while you were growing in those tanks. He told you that you were imperfect. Broken. Flawed. Why else would you hide behind those helmets? Why else would you bend, and cower, and scrape to do the bidding of humans?

"You let Jedore order you around?" Wrex asked them, his voice rising. "You let some human who hides behind mechs tell you what to do? Her hands are clean! She has never felt the blood of her enemies! She is not Krogan!

"You think your enemy stands before you now?" Wrex asked, his voice now a powerful, resounding shout. "I am not your enemy! Your enemy stands behind you, ready to stab you in the back like the cowards they are! Jedore, she is your enemy! Okeer, a traitor to his people, _he_ is your enemy! And today, you will tear down their armies and show the galaxy how weak they truly are! You will show them that you are Krogan, and that you will not fight for their glory! Fight for your own, and fight with honor!"

The tank-bred Krogan answered with one voice. A mighty battle-cry ripped through the air, the Krogan exclaiming their support with raised weapons brandished to the sky.

Wrex smiled, and turned to look at Grunt. The awe on the young Krogan's face was no longer disguised.

"They will follow me," Wrex said. "Will you, Grunt?"

Grunt nodded, never taking his eyes away from Wrex.

"You have proven your strength. In blood and bone, and in spirit," he said. "It can't be denied. You are the strongest warrior I have seen, Urdnot Wrex. I will follow you, and join your _krantt_. Name our targets, Battlemaster, and I will hunt them down."

"Spoken well, Grunt," Wrex said. "Fortunately for you, our targets aren't too far away. Our business is with Jedore, Okeer, Enyala, and Wasea. Can I trust you to fight against your own father, when the time comes?"

Grunt scoffed, his eyes bitter with anger.

"He was no father of mine," the young Krogan said. "Okeer's tank raised me, not him. And he no longer commands me, either. I have sworn myself to your _krantt_, and that is all."

"Then we should get going," Wrex said. "I can't wait to see the look on Okeer's face when he realizes his own soldiers are tearing down his walls." He chuckled. "Good times."

Wrex nodded over to Aleena and Zaeed, who came out of cover at last.

"Now that," Zaeed said, "that was damned impressive. Nicely done, Wrex."

Wrex nodded his thanks, before looking over and seeing Aleena looking back at him with an expression so predatory it almost sent a shiver down his spine.

Yeah, he was definitely making it out of this alive, all right.

Before Aleena could say anything to elaborate on the promise in her eyes, however, her Omni-Tool beeped harshly and drew her attention down to her wrist.

"Liselle?" she asked. "What is it, kid?"

"Actually, this is Tali," the Quarian's voice answered from the other end of the connection. "We have a serious problem."

"Define 'serious'," Zaeed broke in, walking over to stand by Aleena. "And do it quickly."

"I just got a reading from Nahv'dar," Tali explained. "It was a rebooting message, a backup emergency notification he installed in case we ever got separated and he was shut down. As soon as he powers back up, my Omni-Tool can pinpoint exactly where he is."

"I get the feeling this is where the problem comes in," Zaeed said. "Where is he now?"

"Off-planet," Tali said, sounding like she was struggling to keep her voice level. "He managed to keep the connection open just long enough to send some extra data, before he had to terminate it as a precaution. It… it gets worse."

"Slow down, Tali," Aleena stepped in, trying to keep her own rising anxiety out of her voice. "Breathe. Tell me what happened."

"They're in an Eclipse shuttle, heading to a larger ship. From there, they're traveling to an Eclipse Dreadnought."

"'They'? Who else is with him?"

"The whole squad," Tali said. "Shepard, Garrus, Murphy… Liselle, too. I'm sorry, Aleena. They got everyone."

Aleena forced herself to ignore the clenching feeling in her heart for the moment, refocusing her mind on Tali.

"Don't worry," she said. "We're going to get them all back, whatever it takes. But first, we have some unfinished business here that needs dealing with. We'll call you when we're ready for extraction. Until then, stay out of sight and stay safe. You hear me?"

"Loud and clear," Tali said, regaining some strength in her voice. "I'll be ready when you call."

"Good. Over and out."

Aleena closed down her Omni-Tool and shut her eyes, taking one long, calming breath. When her eyes opened again, they were cold, focused and full of hatred.

"They have my daughter," she said, her voice seething with so much barely-controlled anger that even Grunt straightened up and took notice.

"They have my daughter," she repeated, her voice becoming even colder. "We're going to find Enyala, Wasea, and that bitch Jedore, and I'm going to break their bones one by one until they tell us where those ships are.

"And once they do," Aleena finished, "I'm going to cut their fucking heads off and throw their bodies to the Varren."

"That's a plan I can certainly get behind," Zaeed said, his eye dark with anger almost as intense as Aleena's. "Looks like a few more idiots need a hard lesson on what happens when you fuck with my crew."

Wrex said nothing, his rage bleeding out around him like an oppressive aura. It lifted for the briefest of moments as he looked over to Aleena again, nodding in support and mustering a small, reassuring smile.

But that moment vanished almost as soon as it had come, and Wrex's anger came rushing back in to fill the void that had been left in his chest by the news of his captured daughter. His enemies would pay for their insult in blood.

Wrex looked to Grunt, and then over towards the other thirty Krogan.

The Battlemaster roared, and once more his soldiers echoed the call to arms.

It was time, at long last, to bring Okeer and his lackeys to justice.

* * *

…

…

**A/N:** And so the second part of the Korlus Assault comes to an end! This chapter was immensely satisfying to write, and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed putting it together. I've been waiting for Grunt's true appearance since starting this story (he's one of my favorite characters in the series), so hopefully all the build-up was worth the payoff.

Or, the beginning of the payoff, at least. Still have some action yet to go before this arc is over. Eclipse done screwed with the wrong band of mercs.

Thanks for continuing to read this far, and as per usual, your feedback would be greatly appreciated. In addition, a shout-out must be given to **Kanukoris**, for their continued sound-boarding help and general all-around awesomeness. If you want to read some great ME fic now that this chapter is done, go check out their fic **Veteran Zero**. Which, honestly, you should have already done by now. But if you're late to the party, time to rectify that.

See you next time!

**- JP**


	8. Hades' Dogs

**Black Sun Rising**

**Chapter 8: Hades' Dogs**

* * *

Miranda Lawson set her large shuttle to autopilot and let it drift towards the Mass Relay, stretching out on her bunk and staring up at the ceiling. She was still amazed by the fact that this thing had an operating drive-core, but one of the first things she'd learned on the job for Cerberus was that "Prototype Technology" was really code for "Don't ask any questions, because we can't answer them."

And when Miranda had finally gotten the answer, drunkenly spilled by a Cerberus engineer one night in a room at one of their most closely-guarded black-site research stations, Miranda wished she'd never asked the question.

She hadn't gotten a good night's sleep since that moment, and probably never would again.

She'd thought that a transfer to C-Sec might put the horrifying revelation out of her mind, but it kept gnawing away at her. It had been hard resisting the temptation to tell someone, _anyone_, the truth about what Cerberus was planning, but Miranda knew they wouldn't believe her.

That, and the Illusive Man would put a bullet in her head for leaking that kind of information— and she needed Cerberus's protection. Four years' worth of carrying a dark secret around in her back pocket was a suitable price to pay for protection from her father's agents.

_Miranda closed the datapad and tossed it aside, biting back a sigh. _

"_It's a stupid ghost story, Eddie. The Reapers never actually existed."_

"_No, I'm sure they did. Just that the Protheans destroyed them, once and for all. The Asari Matriarch Benezia wrote, like, a whole ten-volume thing on it!"_

_Miranda saw her opening and took it._

"_You can read?"_

"_Real funny, Lawson. Laugh it up."_

The only time she had been even remotely tempted to open up during her time at C-Sec had been one particularly drunken night at the bar with Garrus Vakarian. Something about the way he'd asked if something was wrong, like his eyes were piercing right through all the secrets and obfuscation and bullshit—

She missed him. In the way she missed not having someone around to tease all the time, sure, but she still missed him.

A beep from the shuttle's communicator jolted Miranda out of her thoughts, and she pushed herself out of the cot to go answer it.

"Yes?"

"_Operative Lawson,"_ a calm voice answered on the other end, _"there's been a development."_

Miranda kept her curse to herself, biting it back from the tip of her tongue. Any 'development' that came directly from Kai Leng was never a good thing.

"What are my new orders, Sir?"

"_It appears as though a group of mercenaries is heading to Korlus, on the trail of Vido Santiago. The same ones your report says you ran into on the Citadel, in fact. For obvious reasons, if their goal is to kill Santiago—as our intel seems to indicate—we can't let that happen."_

"So I'm going to Korlus, then?"

"_I wasn't finished,"_ Kai Leng said, somehow sounding irritated even in near-monotone. _"You're going to Pragia. It's in the Dakka System of the Nubian Expanse. Our Teltin Facility for biotic experimentation is there."_

"What does that have to do with me, Sir?"

"_Your assignment is to pick up a new prototype weapon we've been developing there, code-name 'Zero'. You'll be taking it with you to Korlus for its preliminary field-test. The coordinates should already be in your navigation computer."_

"Understood."

"_Oh, and Lawson?"_

"Yes, Sir?"

"_Welcome back."_

The connection went dead, and Miranda pulled up the data on Pragia from the ship's computer. She immediately wanted several stiff drinks, but Cerberus hadn't done her the courtesy of stocking her getaway vehicle with a liquor cabinet.

Punching in the coordinates to the Dakka System, Miranda resumed her place on her cot. Setting an alarm for when the ship reached Pragia, she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

"_I'm sorry, I don't think I heard that right. You want to _what_, Miranda?"_

"_I want to leave, dad. I want out of this… this place. It's not a home. We're not a family. And this isn't a life."_

_Henry Lawson laughed, and there was no humor in the sound._

"_I don't think I've ever heard anything more absurd in my entire life," he said. "Do you realize how many people in the galaxy would murder just to have the _chance_ to get the kind of life I've given you? The money, the comfort, the genetic modifications? How can you be so blind and ungrateful?"_

"_That's not the point! Everything you've given me always comes with a catch, or a hook. I'd trade it all away in a second just to be able to do what _I _want!"_

"_My god, are you serious? Do you even hear what you're saying, Miranda? You don't like catches or hooks? Good luck living out in real life. Catches and hooks are what make the world go 'round. Everyone's always going to want something from you. Everyone._

"_And you want to do what _you_ want?" her father continued, laughing again. "I'll let you in on a little secret, kid. I don't give a shit about what _you_ want. I never have, and I never will. I created you. I made you from the ground up, every single detail. Without me, you wouldn't even exist. Every advantage you have, it's only yours because _I gave it to you._ I'd say that gives me the right to do with you whatever I goddamn please, wouldn't you agree?"_

_Miranda had turned and stormed from the room without another word, not stopping until she was in her bedroom, collapsed on the floor against the locked door and trying not to scream in rage._

_She wanted to ignore her father's words, to write them off as meaningless taunts and vicious bullying. But Miranda could hear the ring of truth in them, all the same. _

_What was she, if not just columns on a checklist ticked off, and then coalesced into the shape of a person?_

_She reached for her phone, took a deep breath, and called up the one person she knew might be able to talk her through this. Just like he always had before._

The ship's alarm woke Miranda up from her nightmare, and she shut her eyes and shook her head against the unwelcome memory. It still lingered, like it always did, but it was far enough away now that Miranda could refocus on the task at hand. She could hear the heavy rainfall pelting the shuttle, and took a moment to create a watertight biotic barrier around herself before she exited.

As she moved down the ramps towards the facility's entrance, the first thing Miranda heard was a high-pitched, agonized scream. It was a scream that could only have come from a child.

She tried to ignore the sinking feeling in her chest as she entered the building, but didn't entirely succeed.

* * *

"Wait, what do you mean we have a visitor?"

"I mean someone's here for a pick-up, Miss Chambers. Got the word from the Illusive Man himself not too long ago. Apparently it's Operative Lawson, back in from the cold."

The news made Kelly Chambers' heart lift a little, only to have it go sinking back down again when the guard continued to speak.

"She's here for Subject Zero."

"Jack?" Kelly asked, her eyes widening. "But she can't go anywhere. She can't! She just got out of surgery a few weeks ago, remember? For her implant malfunction? And to be honest," Kelly continued, "I'm still waiting for an answer on why I haven't been allowed to see her since then!"

"Miss Chambers," the guard said, sounding slightly apologetic, "I'm going to need you to come with me, please."

The tone of the request made Kelly nervous, but she also wasn't about to refuse someone holding an assault rifle. They turned and walked down the hallway, towards the area where Jack's cell was located. The sound of a child's scream cut through the air, and Kelly hated herself for ever having agreed to come to this godforsaken place.

"What is Petrovsky doing to them?" she asked, not bothering to hide her anger. "If he wasn't his father's son, I'd have tossed him to the wildlife months ago."

"You and me both, Miss Chambers," the guard said. "At least your kids seem to be doing all right, though. They deserve someone like you looking out for them."

"No," Kelly said, her voice heavy, "they deserve to be free."

"You do know I'm contractually obligated to report it when you say things like that, right?"

Kelly laughed bitterly.

"Oh, come on," she said. "What's the Illusive Man gonna do to poor, little Kelly Chambers? I'm a psychiatrist, not a revolutionary."

"Well, here we are," the guard said, bluntly changing the subject as they came to Jack's cell. "Now, about Subject Zero—"

"Her name is Jack."

"Okay, fine. About Jack… that operation wasn't about fixing a faulty implant, exactly."

Something in the guard's tone put Kelly on edge, and she fought to calm herself back down as the guard opened the door.

"What're you talking about?"

"It was an… augmentation project," the guard said. "Maybe it'd just be better for you to see for yourself."

The door to the cell opened, and the stench of rot made Kelly immediately cover her nose and mouth against her reflexive retch. It smelled like no one had been in here for weeks to clean the place up, which Kelly realized with dread might have very well been the truth.

"Orders were to let no one see Subj—Jack, until the Illusive Man said otherwise. And even then, you were only given clearance because it—she, sorry—listens to you instead of trying to rip your face off."

Kelly saw a form huddled under the desk in the fetal position and wanted to cry.

"Get out," she said, channeling her grief into hard bitterness. "Just… get out. I'll take care of this."

"But—"

"Leave!" Kelly shouted, tears in her eyes now. "Just leave!"

The guard beat a hasty retreat, not wanting to face the anger of either Kelly Chambers or her favorite patient.

A few moments later, Kelly sighed and tried to compose herself.

"Jack," she said softly, "it's fine. You can come out now. He's gone. I'm here. It's me, Kelly."

It took Jack a few moments to move herself out from under her desk, but Kelly gave her all the time she needed. When Jack finally stood in front of her, it took every ounce of strength Kelly had not to break down all over again.

Jack was dressed in nothing more than a soiled white tee-shirt and equally-torn up canvas pants, with her feet bare on the hard concrete floor. Her messy black hair was free of its usual ponytail, and went down to just above her shoulder-blades. But it was her eyes that broke Kelly's heart. They had always been so full of life, in constant defiance of Cerberus's attempts to turn her into some kind of biotic weapon. Kelly had taken pride in helping keep that defiance alive, and now it was gone. Her dark eyes were empty, blank slates. There was nothing left.

For the first time in years, Kelly Chambers felt pure, unadulterated hatred.

After another long moment, Jack blinked and looked at her again, as if just seeing Kelly for the first time.

"Kelly?" she asked, the thinness of her voice a stark contrast to the past. "Is… is that you?"

Kelly moved forward and drew Jack into an embrace, holding her gently as she reacted at first, but then calmed down again.

"It's me," Kelly said quietly, running a hand comfortingly through Jack's hair. "It's me. I'm so sorry I couldn't get here sooner, Jack. I had no idea what they'd done to you."

Jack trembled, and when she spoke her voice was choked by a half-sob.

"I missed you," she said. "I thought you'd left me."

"No. No, I would never do that," she said. "I couldn't. You're my friend, Jack. Never forget that."

They stood there for a few more moments in silence, each of them just relieved that the other was still alive. Eventually, Kelly took a few steps back, but made a point of keeping her hands on Jack's shoulders.

"What did they do to you, Jack?" she asked. "Are you okay?"

"We… we can't talk about that," Jack said. "The scientists. They told me that if I told anyone what they did to me, they would kill them to keep it secret. Can't let them hurt you. Sorry."

Jack even _sounded_ broken, and for a few heartbeats Kelly wanted nothing more than to blow this whole facility up, fly to the Illusive Man's headquarters and punch his teeth down his throat.

But that moment passed, and Kelly forced herself back to calm.

"They were lying to you," she said. "The guard who brought me here, he told me that it was some kind of augmentation surgery. And if he knows, I'm sure you can tell me. What happened, Jack?"

Jack's eyes clouded with fear, but a reassuring squeeze on her shoulders was enough to bring her back.

"The scientists, they gave me a drug," she said. "It didn't knock me out, though. They said... they said they needed to… to track my responses during the procedure. And then, then…" her voice shook, but she kept going. "They cut at me. Like I was an animal. Cut me open and put things in me. Weaving, metal. It… it hurt. It hurt so much. I thought I was going to die. I… I wanted to die. I wanted it to end."

Kelly pulled Jack close again and whispered to her.

"It's okay," she said. "I'm sorry I asked. I didn't want to make it hurt again."

"They said they were going to make me stronger," Jack said. "They said they were going to make me fight again. Turn me into a killer."

"They won't, Jack," Kelly said. "I've kept them from doing that for the past fifteen years, and I'm sure as hell not gonna stop now. You might be a fighter, and they might have made you kill, but you're not a killer. They can't make that choice for you."

"But what if they take you away from me?" Jack said. "Who's gonna help me stay in control then?"

"You will," Kelly told her. "You're the strongest person I've ever met, Jack, even if you don't realize it. Every other twenty-two year-old I know would have gone crazy by now, living in a hellhole like this place and getting poked and prodded for years."

Jack chuckled, a sound that lifted Kelly's spirits immensely. She took a step back, smiling weakly.

"I'm only not crazy because of you," she told Kelly. "If you hadn't helped pull me back over and over again after all those fights, and those drugs…" Jack shuddered. "I don't even want to think about it."

"Don't sell yourself short, kid," Kelly said, smiling back. "Whatever happens, wherever you go, always remember that I'm proud of you. Promise me you'll remember that. And if you have to fight, don't fight for Cerberus. Fight for yourself."

"I promise," Jack said, before a knock at the door pulled them both back to reality.

"Finish up in there," the guard's voice could be heard saying. "Lawson's here. It's time."

Jack put the pieces together in her head and frowned, anger creeping back through her tenuous calm.

"I was right, wasn't I?" she asked. "They're going to take me away."

"Probably," Kelly admitted. "But honestly, pretty much anywhere's better than this dump, right?"

"I guess so, yeah. This place does suck pretty fuckin' badly."

Kelly smiled, glad to see Jack returning to her normal self. She noticed the still-healing scars on Jack's visible skin and almost shuddered at their number.

"Just send me some postcards, all right?" she said. "I want to know about all the places you'll get to see."

"A postcard?" Jack asked, chuckling. "What year do you think it is, 1999?"

"Hey, so I'm an old geezer at heart," Kelly said, sounding mock-offended. "Whatever."

"At heart?" Jack teased, and Kelly gave her a playful punch on the shoulder.

"Forty isn't old!" she paused, reconsidering. "Well, maybe it is, but I'm not a 'geezer' yet!"

The two of them shared a laugh, but it was a laugh that made Jack feel empty when it had passed.

* * *

The further she walked through the halls of the Teltin Facility, the more Miranda Lawson wanted to burn it to the ground.

The Illusive Man knew about this place, and it was still being allowed to operate? She found the idea almost impossible to believe.

And it was that 'almost', that little, niggling, gnawing doubt at the back of her mind, that made Miranda truly upset. Because as much as she wanted to convince herself otherwise, what she'd seen of the Illusive Man's methods and philosophy had, in some ways, reminded her uncomfortably of her father.

And seeing Teltin was only making that comparison harder and harder to ignore.

Another child screamed, and the sound made Miranda physically flinch.

"How can you stand listening to that?" she asked, glad she'd skipped lunch.

The guard, one Officer Macavoy, shrugged.

"It only lasts a second. The other kid's usually put 'em out of their misery by then."

The implications of the explanation hit Miranda like a sledgehammer to the gut.

"You… you let the children fight each other? To the death? Are you _serious_?"

"Hey, calm down, lady. I don't give any of the orders. Some of the scientists just have… different methods than the others do. But as long as they get results, the top brass don't really seem to care."

"So you're saying the Illusive Man knows about this place?"

The Macavoy looked at Miranda like she'd grown horns.

"What kind of question is that?" he asked. "We're still getting funding, aren't we? You think the Illusive Man doesn't personally sign off on every expenditure order that goes down the Cerberus chain? You must be pretty new at this game, kid."

"I've been with Cerberus for four years, I'll have you know. I'm an Operative for a reason."

"I'm sure there's a reason for it, all right," Macavoy said, the tone in his voice suggesting something that made Miranda want to murder him in the hallway. But she kept her anger in check, remembering that she had a job to do. She just mentally filed away Officer Macavoy on her list of people to kill horribly once she'd made enough money to retire.

It was a very long list. Good thing her lifespan was, too.

The inadvertent reminder of her father's genetic modification made Miranda even angrier, and she decided it would be smartest just to stop talking. As she pulled herself back into the present, Miranda realized Macavoy was in the middle of saying something.

"… glad you're here to take Subject Zero off our hands, though. Little bitch almost broke my arm last month."

"I thought Zero was a weapon," Miranda said, unable to restrain her confusion at the idea of an apparently sentient firearm. Macavoy shook his head.

"Nah, she's a human. Biotic, like the rest of these freaks. Don't know why the boss seems to like them so much, but I ain't paid to ask questions."

The two of them finally came to the door of Subject Zero's cell, where another guard was waiting for them. He was holding two steel briefcases, and Miranda could tell he was nervous beneath his calm exterior.

"At ease, Macavoy," the other guard said. "I'll take it from here. The rest of this is above your pay-grade."

"Bite me, Julius," Macavoy said, his defiance only breaking after a short stare-down. "Suck-up," he muttered, before turning around and walking away. On his way out, though, Macavoy turned around for one last unsubtle look at Miranda.

"Every time I see that bastard," Julius said lowly, "he finds new ways to make me want to kill him. One of these days, I'm just gonna do it and blame it on the Varren."

"Call me first," Miranda said, before catching sight of a datapad Julius was holding out to her. "What's this?"

"Information on Subject Zero," Julius said. "Just so you're briefed before we go in there." He knocked on the door. "Finish up in there. Lawson's here. It's time."

Miranda's eyes scanned quickly and efficiently over the datapad:

_Name: Unknown, taken in at birth. Designated "Subject Zero"._

_Age: 22._

_Temperament: Volatile._

_Biotic Implant: L-3. _

_Update: Upgraded to L-6 prototype implant, based upon prototype R-489X technology._

The last line gave Miranda pause as she recognized the alphanumeric designation: it was shorthand for prototype, reverse-engineered Reaper technology.

She swallowed her unease and kept reading.

_Additional information: Recently underwent experimental procedure to strengthen bones and musculature, through the usage of R-489X grafts and weaves. In conjunction with the protection provided by the modified Phantom armor, this should render Subject Zero an ideal biotic shock-trooper._

Miranda kept her judgment to herself, lest she open her mouth and be court-marshaled for treason. She called a small burst of biotic energy into her hand and destroyed the datapad, ignoring Julius's surprised look. Even if no one else here knew what that designation meant, it was still incredibly classified information.

"Okay," Miranda said, "let's get this over with."

The door opened, and she had to fight not to retch at the state of the room.

"First thing's first," Miranda said, as soon as she'd gotten her bearings back. "Does this place have showers and a mess hall?"

"Of course," Julius said.

Miranda pointed to the younger of the two women she could see, who she assumed was Jack.

"Then get her cleaned up and fed, for Christ's sake. She deserves at least that much, after what you all put her through."

"But, the mission—"

"Can wait," Miranda cut Julius off, her tone icy and commanding. "We have the time. Or do you expect someone to be able fight well when they're exhausted, dirty and starving?"

Julius nodded.

"Very well, Ma'am. I'll escort Zero there presently."

"You do that. I'll be here."

Subject Zero followed Julius out of the cell, giving Miranda an unreadable look and a light shove with her shoulder as she passed by. Miranda turned to face the only other person left in the cell, who seemed to be evaluating her just as Miranda was doing the same in return.

"My name's Kelly Chambers," the other woman said at last. "Call me Kelly. I'm one of the psychiatrists here at Teltin. And you are?"

"Miranda Lawson," Miranda answered, before pausing just long enough to create a biotic barrier that covered the entire room, coating it like a second set of walls, floor and ceiling.

"That should keep any recording devices from seeing or hearing us," Miranda explained, "so we can speak freely."

"I appreciate that, Miranda," Kelly said, sighing as she sat down in the chair at Jack's desk. "Free speech is a bit of a luxury around here."

"How long have you been working here, Kelly?"

"Oof," Kelly sighed dramatically, leaning back and looking at the far wall. "Sixteen years. Took this post when I was twenty-four, but it feels like three lifetimes ago now. They pitched it as a post to help children with PTSD, can you believe that?" Kelly laughed bitterly, her eyes haunted. "What I didn't know at the time was that _we_ were the ones giving the kids PTSD, by running sick experiments on them. I tried to stop it, but that almost got me killed—more than once, I might add. The way I could reach the kids was the only thing that made me an asset valuable enough to keep alive.

"So I decided to shift my focus," she said. "Now, I try to do as much for these kids as I can. Yeah, there're days I feel like a coward for not just throwing Petrovsky off the roof for all the sick shit he does, but…"

Kelly shrugged.

"At least they have someone. Every kid deserves a mother, right?"

Miranda hid her pain behind a weak smile.

"Yeah," she said, "I suppose they do."

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Kelly apologized immediately. "I didn't mean to open up any old wounds."

Miranda did a double-take, surprised by the apology. She didn't think she'd been that easy to read.

"No need to apologize," she said. "You're very observant."

"It's my job," Kelly said, her voice gaining some brightness. "And it's about the only thing I can do to help these kids, short of blowing this whole place sky-high."

"If you ever do," Miranda said, "I'll bring extra explosives."

Kelly tilted her head slightly to the side, appraising Miranda carefully.

"You look younger than Jack," she said. "Odd age for a full Operative."

"Jack?"

"Oh, right. They probably never called her by her name. Jack is 'Subject Zero'."

"I see," Miranda said, before returning to Kelly's original point. "It's not that odd. I've been with Cerberus for four years. Took time in C-Sec as an undercover agent for the last two."

"They recruited you that young?"

"I volunteered."

Kelly was quiet for a few moments, and Miranda could see her putting the pieces together in her head.

"Ah," she said at last. "That makes sense. I can't imagine growing up with a father that distant was easy, especially if your mother died when you were young. Money can't buy happiness, after all."

Miranda was starting to get unnerved by just how good Kelly was at her job.

"How do you know who my father is?"

"Well, you look just like Henry Lawson, except for being a girl," Kelly said. "I connected a few dots. Did he approve of you joining Cerberus?"

"No," Miranda began to answer. "He—wait, why am I telling you this?" she said, confused and worried. "I don't even know who you are!"

"I'm just trying to help," Kelly said, her calm never wavering. "If you're going to take Jack somewhere dangerous, I need to know you're at peace with yourself enough to keep her alive. She's a good kid, Miranda, in spite of all the crap Cerberus put her through. She deserves to live long enough to know what being free feels like."

Miranda could feel the doubts, fears and contradictory impulses blitzing through her mind, until she couldn't take it anymore and had to stifle a scream of frustration as she sat down on Jack's bed.

"I don't get it," she said at last, after Kelly had moved over to sit next to her. "I just don't get it. Why would Kai Leng send me on this assignment? He had to have known—the Illusive Man had to have known—how I'd react. It doesn't make any sense!"

"Maybe it was a test," Kelly said. "Psychological manipulation is the Illusive Man's specialty. That's how he found me for recruitment. Maybe he wanted to see if you'd waver or crack under this kind of pressure."

"But… why?" Miranda asked, still incapable of wrapping her head around it. "Doesn't he trust me enough? Haven't I proven myself?"

"Clearly, he doesn't think so," Kelly said. "But it's up to you to decide what to do with how that makes you feel," she added, looking Miranda in the eyes. "Running from Cerberus tends to significantly shorten your life-expectancy. But staying with them tends to rot your soul," she finished, looking sorrowful. "I can vouch for that."

Miranda took a deep breath, forcing herself back to her calm, focused center. There had to be a solution. There was always a workaround, a way out. Some crazy strategy that could pull off what most people would consider impossible. Because Cerberus Operatives were not 'most people'.

Kai Leng had told her that before sending her off to C-Sec.

Wait a minute…

Something he'd said earlier about Vido Santiago popped back up in the front of Miranda's mind, and it only took her a few minutes after that to think of a plan. Yes, it was crazy. Yes, it would probably get her killed slowly, and in great pain.

But on the upside, at least she'd probably get to see Garrus again before she took a bullet to the brain.

"I have an idea," she said. "It's a long shot, but if it works… if it works, Jack might be able to slip away from Cerberus once this job is done."

Kelly smiled, and Miranda got the sense that it was her first truly unreserved smile in a long time.

"That would make me happy," she said softly, sounding like her voice was about to break. "Thank you, Miranda."

"Don't thank me yet," she said. "It might still get us both murdered."

"No," Kelly said, "I don't think so. You're both strong. And if you got rid of your self-imposed chains, Miranda, you'd be even stronger for it. But I'm sure that'll come in time."

Miranda was about to reply, but the sight of the door being opened cut her off. She quickly broke down her biotic barrier, and when Julius entered with Jack there was no sign that the barrier had ever even existed. When Kelly saw what Jack was wearing, however, she stood up halfway off the bed in surprise.

Jack's tattered clothing had been replaced by a suit of combat armor that was almost identical to the suit worn by Cerberus's mysterious Phantom corps. The only differences were that it was entirely black, and there were veins of blue laced with electronics that ran sporadically along its surface. Miranda instantly recognized the design as being modified Reaper technology, amazed that the Illusive Man's project had already progressed so far.

"I don't care what the safety manual for this thing says," Jack said, "I'm not wearing the goddamn helmet. It looks fuckin' ridiculous."

Kelly laughed.

"Well," she said, "you definitely seem to be in better spirits. Ready to get off this planet?"

"You know it," Jack said, before looking over at Miranda. The other biotic got the hint, rising to her feet.

"I'll give you two a minute," she said. "C'mon, Julius. We can wait outside."

Jack watched Miranda skeptically as she left, before turning and looking over to Kelly.

"What's her deal?" she asked, and Kelly smiled knowingly.

"She's at a bit of a crossroads, I think," she said. "Try to be nice to her, okay? She might surprise you."

"Really? I doubt that. She works for Cerberus."

Kelly's smile widened slightly.

"So do I, last time I checked."

"That's…" Jack began, before frowning petulantly at the sight of Kelly's smug expression. "That's totally different."

"Aw, relax," Kelly said. "I was just yanking your chain a little." She smiled, genuinely this time. "Look at you, all suited up and ready to go," she continued, walking over to get a closer look at Jack. "You've gone and grown up on me, kid. I'm proud of you."

"Thanks," Jack said, reaching up and putting a hand on Kelly's shoulder. "Stay safe, all right? I'll come back for you, I promise. Even if it takes a while."

"I'll be fine, don't worry about me. Just make sure Miranda doesn't get herself killed, all right?"

Jack gave her a look, and Kelly frowned.

"Oh, don't be like that," she said. "Just trust me, Jack. Who knows? Maybe you'll even get to be friends."

Jack snorted.

"Somehow, I doubt it."

"You don't even know her."

"Exactly."

Kelly huffed, but knew Jack well enough to see that this was going nowhere fast.

"Have it your way then, you sourpuss," Kelly said. "I just can't wait to say 'I told you so'."

Jack laughed.

"We'll see," she said. Then her face got serious again, and she looked Kelly in the eyes.

"This is goodbye, huh?"

"Seems like it."

"I fuckin' hate goodbyes."

Kelly smiled sadly.

"You and most everyone else," she said, before leaning forwards and kissing Jack lightly on the forehead. "Safe travels, Jack. And try to message when you can."

"Okay, mom," Jack said with a smirk. "I'll try."

Jack turned and left the cell, not looking back. Kelly didn't hold it against her: she hated goodbyes just as much as everyone else.

* * *

Outside the cell, Jack met up with Miranda and Julius. The guard turned to Jack, motioning to one of the two steel briefcases.

"You sure you don't want the sword, Zero?"

"Yeah, for the last time, I'm sure," Jack said. "I'd probably chop my own arm off trying to use that damn thing."

"Suit yourself," Julius said, before reaching to his waist and pulling out a large hypodermic needle-gun. "This is just one last precaution," he said, loading a chip into the chamber. "It'll only sting for a second."

Jack sprang back and her expression curled into a snarl, but it was Miranda who stepped in front of Julius.

"What the hell is that thing?" she asked. "And what made you think it was a good idea to point it at someone who just had majorly invasive surgery without any warning?!"

The guard took a step and a half back in surprise, and Jack eased up her stance. She looked curiously at Miranda, who was still staring daggers at Julius.

"Please, Miss Lawson, relax," Julius said. "This is just a safety measure, that's all. It's a small, remote controlled explosive. If Zero ever tries to attack you, you're gonna need a way to bring it down safely."

Jack glared hatefully at being objectified, and Miranda's expression wasn't much more lenient.

"Right," she said, "because Jack is totally going to trust me if I have a trigger to a bomb underneath her skin. If this mission is going to work, I need to have her with me one hundred percent. Which is not going to be the case if she's afraid her head might get blown off her shoulders at any moment."

"Fine, fine," Julius said, putting the gun away. "You want to take that risk, Miss Lawson, it's your funeral. We took the liberty of refueling your ship while you were on-site. Should be more than enough to get you to the Mass Relay."

"Thank you," Miranda said curtly, before looking back over her shoulder at Jack.

"You coming?" she asked. Jack stood still for a few moments, thinking. But then the scream of a nearby child yanked her out of her thoughts, and she began to walk forward.

"Y'know," she said as soon as they were alone, walking over a bridge that looked down on a Varren pit, "I wasn't expecting you to stick up for me like that. What's your name?"

"Miranda."

"I'm Jack."

"Nice to meet you, Jack."

They continued to walk in silence, until the unwelcome sight of Officer Macavoy made itself visible on the far end of the bridge, walking toward them. When he recognized Miranda, his grin made Jack want to vomit.

"Hey, Operative," he said, leering. "How's about one before you hit the road? Guy like me can get real lonely in a place like this."

Miranda smiled.

"Oh, you just wanted some company?" she said. "Why didn't you say so?"

Macavoy let his guard down as he took a step forward, and Miranda struck. Gripping him with her biotics and clamping a barrier down over his mouth to shut him up, she lifted him off the ground and threw him over the side of the bridge, down into the Varren pit. The nearly-feral animals set upon their unexpected meal with gusto, ripping Macavoy limb from limb.

A beat of silence passed between the two young women, and then Jack looked over at Miranda.

"Lawson," she said, "you're all right."

Miranda smiled.

"I try my best," she said. "Let's get the hell out of here, Jack. We have more important things to do."

* * *

As it turned out, another Cerberus Operative had called ahead to inform Jedore of Miranda and Jack's approach. So getting to the main base of operations had been easy.

Everything else, not so much.

"You know," Wasea said, glancing pointedly at Jack a few minutes after their arrival, "sometimes I wonder why humans even bother with biotics. Even with extensive Eezo modification, there's no way they could match us Asari."

"You want to test that claim out, bitch?" Jack seethed, forcing Miranda to physically restrain her. "Only the Blue Suns are part of this deal. You're expendable!"

"So are you, as far as we're concerned," Wasea said. "Our deal was with Cerberus, not their pet. Know your place."

"Let me kill her," Jack hissed to Miranda, pushing against her restraining hold. "Just let me do it. She's begging to be ripped in half!"

"No, Jack," Miranda said. "You're better than that. Don't rise to her bait." She lowered her voice to a whisper before continuing. "Not yet," he said. "You know the plan. Stick to it."

Jack slowly relented, clawing through the haze of endorphins clouding her mind until she was herself again.

"Thanks," she said to Miranda under her breath. "I'm good."

Miranda let Jack go, shooting her own glare at Wasea.

"Insult her again," Miranda said icily, "and we're going to have a problem."

"You really want to go running your mouth off in a room full of my soldiers, human? Your capacity for boasting is astonishing to me, even after all these years."

Miranda smiled.

"It's only boasting if I can't back it up," she said.

Jedore laughed.

"I like this one," she said. "Looks like the Illusive Man hasn't lost his touch."

"Jack," Miranda said just loud enough to be heard, making sure she had her partner's attention before subtly moving her head to the side. Jack got the signal and growled, lunging at Miranda.

"I had her," she snarled, putting a hand around Miranda's neck. "She was mine!"

Miranda made a convincing show of slowly prying Jack away from her, moving the two of them out of sight as she went. Wasea jeered something about Miranda's lack of control over her dog, but neither of the humans were listening.

As soon as they were out of sight, Jack let go of Miranda's neck.

"Okay," she said, "what's up?"

"You get the connection established?"

"Of course," Jack said. She tapped a few points on the forearm of her suit, calling up an Omni-Tool that seemed a good deal more complex than a standard issue version. A few more taps and the feed from Jedore's Omni-Tool started playing, which a few taps more turned into Wasea's feed, and then Enyala's feed.

"Tapped all of 'em, and those idiots have no idea," Jack said with a smile. "Damn, this Reaper tech doesn't mess around."

"Just… be careful with it, okay?" Miranda cautioned, eyeing the armor nervously. "Even I don't know everything it does."

"Well, I read a bit of the manual back at Teltin," Jack said, her eyes narrowing briefly at the mention of the facility. "I do know that this thing," she said, holding up her palm and revealing an orange circle in the middle of the gauntlet, "is a mini-cannon thing that shoots when I tell it to with my mind. Pretty badass, right?"

"Yeah, it is," Miranda said, still uneasy. "Just don't point it at me, okay?"

Jack laughed.

"Ease up, Lawson. I'm not gonna shoot you. You stood up for me back at Teltin. And if Kelly vouches for you, that's good enough for me."

Miranda opened her mouth to reply, but she was cut off by the unexpected sound of Enyala's Omni-Tool feed coming to life through Jack's hack.

"_I repeat, we have the mercenary crew. Or some of them, at least."_

"_Give me an exact count. Can you ID any of them?"_

"_We have an Asari named Liselle, an intact Geth apparently called Nahv'dar, a Human named Murphy, another Human we can't ID, and a Turian named Garrus. Last name unknown."_

Miranda's eyes went wide at the news of Garrus' capture, but she said nothing.

"_Damn, so you didn't get Zaeed. Oh, well. He'll probably be in the group that makes it here. I'll deal with him. Take the prisoners up to the Dreadnought for storage, for now. I'm sure Commander Sederis will have a place for them in the brig. Maybe T'Soni's getting lonely. Keep me posted."_

"_Roger that. Good luck, Ma'am."_

"_Same to you. Enyala out."_

The feed cut to silent, and it was then that Jack noticed the shocked look on Miranda's face.

"What's up?"

Miranda blinked and looked at Jack, slowly coming back into focus.

"Garrus," she said. "They got Garrus."

"Who's that? Your boyfriend or something?"

"He's… a friend," Miranda said, and Jack smirked.

"Right. A Turian, though." Her smirk widened. "Freaky. I like it."

"Oh, shut up," Miranda said. "He's on a Dreadnought now, or he will be soon. An _Eclipse_ Dreadnought, and probably their flagship."

"That's a tough break," Jack said, sincerely. "I'm sorry."

"But," Miranda said, her expression becoming distracted again as she slipped into her thoughts, "if I heard that right, they got Murphy, and Shepard too. That means Zaeed will want to go after them. And _that_ means we might be able to convince him to let us come along for the ride when he does."

"Wait," Jack said, "this Zaeed guy would attack a Dreadnought? Like, full-on, straight-up assault an Eclipse Capital Ship?"

"Yeah, probably," Miranda said. "He's done crazier things than that before, if the stories are true."

Jack grinned.

"I like this guy," she said. "That sounds like fun."

"_Commander Jedore! Commander Jedore, come in!"_

"_I'm here,"_ Jedore's voice answered through Jack's hack. _"What is it?"_

"_It's Massani! Zaeed Massani is here, and he's destroying our positions! He's pushing up towards Okeer's lab, and… oh my god, he's got Krogan with him! A _lot_ of Krogan! They're closing in on us! Send backup! Send backup!"_

"_Negative, soldier," _Jedore said coldly. _"If Massani's on his way with that much firepower, I need to fortify this position. Tell Okeer to release whatever Krogan he has left, and hold your position for as long as possible. Kill as many of those bastards as you can. That's an order. Jedore out."_

The feed went silent, and Jack and Miranda shared a mutually horrified look.

"Man," Jack said at last, "what a bitch. But hey," she continued, smiling, "it looks like we might get to take her down soon. Should we go get ready?"

"Jack," Miranda said with a determined smile, "I thought you'd never ask."

* * *

…

…

…

**A/N:** Wow, that managed to both come together a lot faster than I thought it would, and be a LOT longer than I originally planned. I hope it was still enjoyable to read, though! Now, for some explanations. But first: writing parts of that chapter made me hate myself. Reviews will help me feel less bad. Just sayin'.

Okay, explanation time. This chapter is, in part, a result of two things. One, my unabashed love for Kelly Chambers, one of the coolest characters in the trilogy. She's one of the few purely good-hearted characters with nothing but love and goodwill for everyone, which is an admirable and rare quality in the ME universe, to put it lightly. So I wasn't about to pass up the chance to put her in this story, and I couldn't think of anyone better suited than her to the task of helping Jack become slightly less maladjusted than she is canonically. Even though she couldn't stop Cerberus from treating Jack like a pit-fighter and drugging her up, at least she could be there when it counted as a supportive figure. So yeah, Kelly is awesome and if she died in your ME2 game RELOAD AND DO IT AGAIN.

Second, the idea to make Jack into a pseudo-Phantom occurred to me when I stumbled across a youtube video showing that, if certain conditions are meant (one of which is you being a HORRIBLE PERSON), Jack shows up as a Phantom in ME3, who you then have to kill. It's heartbreaking, horrific and awful, and if it ever happens to you RELOAD AND DO IT AGAIN.

But since I'm a horrible person, I figured I'd have Cerberus do that to her here, minus the brainwashing. So she's still her awesome self, just reinforced with Reaper tech in her bones and stuff. Like Wolverine, but cooler. Wheeee.

Also, I feel really bad for Miranda as a person, in general. This chapter is basically subtitled "These people's lives are horrible. They all need hugs. And Cerberus is run by a bunch of assholes."

So yeah, that's that. Next chapter (since this one got away from me) will be the climax and end of what has become the Korlus Arc (and to think, in my original outline it was only one chapter long. HA!). After that, it's time for a PRISON BREAK.

Also, as per usual, props go to **Kanukoris **for being all-around awesome. Go read their story **Veteran Zero.** It's really good, and stuff.

Thanks for reading, and see you next time,

**- JP****  
**


End file.
